PLANTS GROWING IN MUD. 69 



SriALL riAGNOLIA. SWEET BAY. 



JMagnblia Virgitiiana. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Magnolia. White. Fragrant. Along the coast. June, July. 



Flowers: solitary; terminal at the end of the branches. Calyx: of three 

 sepals on the receptacle. Corolla : of six to nine rounded petals. Stamens: 

 numerous. Pistils: numerous; arranged in the shape of a cone. Frtiit : cone- 

 like; red, with one or two scarlet seeds. Leaves : alternate ; obovate ; pointed ; 

 downy and whitish underneath. A shrub four to twenty feet high, leafy, branch- 

 ing. 



As the summers return to us, the lovely, fragrant blossoms 

 of the magnolia find their way back to the swamps. Tiie 

 shrub is one with which the children have hardly made a fair 

 compact. With their ruthless little fingers, they strip it of its 

 petals, which they put into bottles and cover with alcohol. A 

 few shakes are all that is then necessary to transform the decoc- 

 tion into the " most delightful perfume," and they offer it to 

 their friends at a price much below that of the market. 



ROSE riALLOW. SWAMP MALLOW. {Plate XXIX.) 

 Hibiscus Moscheutos. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Mallow. Pink. Scentless. A long the coast. A ugust. 



Flowers : large ; seven to eight inches in diameter ; solitary. Calyx : of five 

 green sepals surrounded by an under layer of twelve slender, pointed bracts. 

 Corolla : of five pink petals that become magenta at the base. Stamens : in- 

 numerable ; growing out from all sides of a formation wrapped about the style. 

 Pistils : ^ve united into one. Stigmas: five; resembling tiny mushrooms. 

 Leaves: on petioles; the larger and lower ones three-lobed ; the upper ones 

 ovate ; downy underneath. Stem : erect ; high, reaching six and eight feet. 



In late August, when the rose mallow rises to its stately 

 height among the tall grasses of the salt marshes, the passer-by 

 pauses and gives it the admiration it claims. Undoubtedly it is 

 the most gorgeous of all the plants indigenous to the United 

 States, An old gentleman who had loved it from childhood al- 

 ways said of it : "■ It is the flower that I take off my hat to." 

 And he did not regard it as inferior to the Chinese rose hibiscus 

 which is cultivated in our greenhouses. It is from the petals of 

 the latter species that the women in China extract the black dye 

 to colour their teeth with. Although at a great distance the 



