THE IVIAGNOLIAS 109 



The Tulip Tree 



Liriodendron tulipifera, Linn. 



The tulip tree is a cousin, rather than a sister, to the fore- 

 going magnolias. It stands alone in its genus in America, 

 but has a sister species that grows in the Chinese interior. 

 A tall, stately forest tree, it reached two hundred feet in 

 height, and a trunk diameter of ten feet, in the lower Ohio 

 Valley, when it was covered with virgin forest. This 

 species still holds its own as a valuable lumber tree on 

 mountain slopes of North Carolina and Tennessee. 

 Smaller, but still stately and beautiful, it is found in woods 

 from Vermont to Florida and west to Illinois, Arkansas, 

 and Mississippi. 



In Europe the tulip tree has been a favorite since its dis- 

 covery^ and exportation by the American colonists. More 

 and more it is coming to be appreciated at home as a la\\Ti 

 and shade tree, for there is no time in the year when it is 

 not full of interest and beauty, and no time in its life when 

 it is not a distinct and beautiful addition to any plantation. 



In the dead of winter young tulip trees are singularly 

 straight and symmetrical compared with saplings of 

 other trees. There is usually a grove of them, planted by 

 some older tree that towers overhead, and still holds up its 

 shiny cones, that take months to give up their winged 

 seeds. The close, thick, intricately furrowed bark of the 

 parent tree contrasts sharply with the smooth rind of its 

 branches and the stems of the saplings. Tulip trees are 

 trim as beeclies until the trunks are old. 



The winter twigs are set with oblong blunt leaf-buds. 

 The terminal one contains the flower, when the tree is old 



