The Magnolias and the Tulip Tree 



the tree and letting the suckers grow up thickly around the 

 stump. These bear flowers of unusual size, and clean, hand- 

 some leaves. 



Professor GiflFord recommends the systematic planting of 

 swamp lands in New Jersey to this species of magnolia as a profit- 

 able enterprise. He would prune with care, so as to produce the 

 finest leaves and flowers. The blooming period covers several 

 weeks. Cut flowers and leafy branches command good prices in 

 the markets. Waste land near large cities can be transformed 

 and beautified by this means, and become a source of income to 

 the owners at small outlay. The prunings are salable for house 

 decoration at holiday time. 



The swamp bay is also called white bay, sweet bay and 

 beaver tree. Beavers used its soft wood for their lodges in 

 earlier times. The English call it laurel magnolia. 



Sweet bay it is called because its foliage is somewhat like 

 that of the bay tree of the Old World, which is commonly grown 

 in tubs by florists and is much used in this country for porch 

 decoration. This is Laurus nohilis, the "laurel" of the ancients. 

 The sweet bay of the swamps grows well in gardens if only the soil 

 is moist. But it is safer and in every way more desirable to get 

 plants of it from nurserymen. 



Large-leaved Cucumber Tree {Magnolia macrophylla, 

 Michx.) — A broad, round-headed tree, 30 to 50 feet high, with 

 slender trunk and stout branches. Bark thin, smooth, grey, 

 minutely scaly. Wood light, close textured, pale brown, weak ; sap 

 wood thick, yellow. Buds terminal, i^ to 2 inches long, blunt, 

 covered with white silky hair; axillary small, flat. Leaves 16 to 30 

 inches long, obovate, rounded or acute at apex, broadened at base 

 into ear-like lobes, or deeply cordate, margin entire; upper surface 

 bright green, lining silvery white; petioles stout, 3 to 4 inches 

 long, veins prominent. Flowers 10 to 12 inches across, bowl 

 shaped, made of 6 white fleshy petals much broader than the 3 

 sepals. Inner petals with purple spot at base. Fruit almost 

 globular, 2 to 3 inches long, turning red at maturity. Seeds § 

 inch long. Preferred habitat, deep, fertile valleys, protected from 

 wind. Distribution, foot hills of Alleghany Mountains in North 

 Carolina, south to middle Florida, and west to southern Alabama, 

 to northern Mississippi and Louisiana, and in central Arkansas; 

 range not continuous, trees occur in small, detached groups. 



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