July 31, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



363 



(?) augustifolia, has very narrow leaves, and between these 

 there are various intermediate forms. The flowers present as 

 much variation as the leaves, alike in the size, shape and color 

 of the outer barren ones. In one of the intermediate varieties 

 the barren flowers, which are apparently white, are nearly two 

 inches in diameter, very strongly veined, and of such consist- 

 ence that they persist long into the winter. In another they are 

 of a reddish color, and there are specimens wholly destitute of 

 these enlarged sterile flowers. H. longipes is an elegant new 

 species, resembling the Japanese H. scatidens (syn. H. petio- 

 laris) in the shape of the leaves and in the very long petioles, 

 but otherwise quite different. It has slender branches and 

 papery, cordate, ovate, densely serrulate leaves on slender 

 petioles, two to four inches long, or as long as the blade, and 

 terminal small corymbs of minute flowers, with a few outer 

 sterile ones, about an inch in diameter, on long, slender pedi- 

 cels. It is of erect habit, and two or three feet high. There 

 is a variety lanceolata, differing only in the shape of the leaves. 

 The type is from Nanto and the mountains northward, and 

 the variety from Patung. Both are worth looking after. 



Spiraa. — A shrubby species named 5'. Henryi, and several 

 forms treated as varieties of S, Bliunei, are the best novelties 

 in this genus. S. Henryi is a densely-branched shrub, six or 

 seven feet high, with small leaves coarsely-toothed in the upper 

 part, and small white flowers in very dense compound corymbs, 

 differing in the last-named characters from those species to 

 which it is niost closely allied. The leaves are one of the 

 many substitutes for tea in China. Spirea Bliimei, var. (?) lati- 

 petala, is remarkable for its large flowers, and may possibly be 

 a distinct species. S. Bluviei, var. rotundifolia, and var. hir- 

 suta, differ respectively from the type in the manner indicated 

 by their names. There are several less-marked varieties, and 

 the species as a whole is a very attractive one. 



Liquidainber. — The materials of this genus are sufficient to 

 prove that L. acerifolia of Maximowicz (Z. Maxhiiowiczii 

 Miquel ) cannot be maintained as distinct from L. Fortiiosaita, 

 but there are imperfect specimens of probably two other spe- 

 cies. L. Formosana is an important tree, furnishing much of 

 the timber used for making tea-chests, and it is probably a 

 handsome tree, though too tender to succeed even in the south 

 of England. 



Acanthopanax. — A new species of this genus, A. diver sifolitun, 

 has the appearance, from dried specimens, that suggests a 

 striking object. It is a shrub about ten feet high, with stout, 

 straight branches and very leathery, prickly-toothed leaves of 

 two kinds, simple and trifoliolate, intermixed on the flowery 

 branches. Of course there is nothing particularly ornamental 

 in the flowers of these Araliaceje, but they affoi'd variety when 

 variety of this kind is cared for. 



In concluding this my first series of notes on Chinese plants, 

 I may mention that I have not yet examined the materials of 

 many of the natural orders at all, but when I have, if it should 

 be considered of sufficient interest to the readers of this jour- 

 nal, I may contribute another series. W. B. Hemsley. 



Magnolia glauca in its Most Northern Home. 



■VTEXT to the Mayflower {Epigaa repens), or " Trailing Ar- 

 •'■^ butus," as it is too often called, there is perhaps no local 

 plant whose flowers are more prized by lovers of native flow- 

 ers about Boston than the Magnolia glauca of botanists, or 

 " the Magnolia," as it is everywhere known in this vicinity. 

 Although Emerson ( Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts, 

 p. 603) says, in a note : " It is said to have been found in the 

 County of York, Maine," I do not know that the fact has been 

 proved. With this possible exception, the only place in New 

 England where this Magnolia is known to grow is in the swamps 

 of Essex County, about twenty-five miles north of Boston, 

 and near the latitude of 42° 40'. Here it has been known for 

 over a hundred years, having been first brought to notice by 

 the Rev. Manasseh Cutler, who was famous as a botanist, a 

 theologian and a statesman, and for many years (from 1771) 

 minister of Hamlet Parish, then a part of the town of Ipswich. 



The chief and original locality for this Magnolia here is in 

 what is known as the Magnolia Swamp, not far from the fa- 

 mous old fishing-town of Gloucester, and within a short dis- 

 tance of the sea-coast, now occupied, as is nearly the entire 

 stretch of the New England shore, as a summer resort. 



So eagerly have the flowers been sought for by collectors, 

 and especially by those who wished to make money out of 

 the sale of both plants and flowers, that there has been some 

 apprehension that the day would soon come when the Mag- 

 nolia could only be classed in New England floras as one of 

 the indigenous plants of the past. The hope is now en- 

 tertained, however, that the owners of the woods where it oc- 



curs, appreciating its rarity and interast, will take care that 

 its existence, in a wild state, may be perpetuated. 



Turning oft" from the main road into the Magnolia Swamp 

 there is little to remind one of the vicinity of civilization. No 

 attempt has been made to improve upon Nature, and rest 

 and peace meet the eye everywhere. Few birds seem to 

 make a home within* the swamp, and the full, rich note of the 

 wood-thrush is the most striking sound heard. If the explorer 

 would find the swamp Magnolia in its best flowering condi- 

 tion, he must make his excursion about the first week in July, 

 and be prepared for a rough tramp. Bogs, springs, rocks, 

 thickets and fallen branches and trees may beset the way, 

 but every plant is interesting, and bears testimony to the fact 

 that Essex County contains, within its small area, one of the 

 richest floras in New England. (Mr. John Robinson, in " The 

 Flora of Essex County, Massachusetts," 1880, enumerates 

 about twelve hundred species of flowering plants.) 



The ground in the lower wet places is thickly covered with 

 Cranberries ( Vacciniuin macrocarpum) in full flower, and 

 growing out of the sphagnum, over which the Cranberry 

 loves to spread, we find Habenarias, Calopogon pulchelhis, the 

 sweet-scented Pogonia and two species of Sundew (Drosera). 

 On the hillocks or knolls are thick carpets of the Checker- 

 berry or Partridge-berry {Gaultheria procumbens) in bloom, 

 while the leaves and flower-stalks of Cypripediiim acaule and 

 other early-flowering plants stand above this low-creeping 

 shrub. The Black Alder and Androjneda ligustrina are the 

 most common of the larger shrubs in flower in the thickets. 

 Several species of Blueberries and Huckleberries are com- 

 mon with ripening fruit, and Clethra alnifolia, which will not 

 bloom until after Magnolia blossoms are mostly gone, is 

 abundant everywhere. Indeed, plants of the Heath family 

 seem to predominate in the shrubby vegetation of this region. 



Several species of Cornus may be found, and Viburnutn 

 acerifolium, V. lantanoides, V. cassinoides and one or two 

 other species are in fruit. The Common Elder {Sambucus 

 Canadensis) is in full bloom, and it must be counted as one of 

 the handsomest native shrubs flowering at this season. The 

 other native species, the early-flowered Elder {S. racemosa), 

 is much less common and has ripened its fruit, which has 

 all been eaten by birds. The Wild Roses at this time cannot 

 be surpassed for beauty and fragrance, and they grow wher- 

 ever there is the least encouragement by soil and sunlight. 



Among the most conspicuous trees is the White Pine (P. 

 Strobits), which is found almost everywhere, while Pimcs 

 rigida and the Hemlock {Tsuga Canadensis) accompany it in 

 many situations. The Red Maple is, perhaps, the most 

 abundant of the deciduous trees in the swamp, and the Sugar- 

 Maple, the Yellow Birch {Betula liitea), and the favorite 

 aromatic Black Birch (i?. lenta) grow wherever the ground is 

 elevated enough to be moderately dry. Witch-hazels, Alders, 

 Poison Dogwood {Rhus venenata), etc., may be found growing 

 in the immediate vicinity of the plant sought for. 



The Magnolia here grows as a shrub from five to ten or 

 fifteen feet high. A great many of the plants have become 

 badly broken by the recklessness and vandalism of collectors, 

 so that well-grown, uninjured specimens are now rarely found. 



Many have been transplanted from the woods to gardens in 

 the surrounding country, and some fine bushy specimens are 

 preserved in this way. Although naturally growing in swampy 

 situations, the plant thrives very well on high and compara- 

 tively dry land, especially if a little shaded from the sun. In 

 cultivation it grows much faster, and will produce finer speci- 

 men plants if grafted upon stock" of the Cucumber-tree {Mag- 

 nolia acuminata), the only other species of Magnolia in 

 America which reaches as high a latitude as AI. glauca. In 

 western New York it extends about a degree further north to 

 the southern shores of Lake Ontario. The Umbrella Tree 

 {M. tripetala) is more generally used for stock, as it is more 

 easily grown and transplanted. It is, however, more liable to 

 sucker than the other species. 



According to Dr. Charles Pickering (" Chronological History 

 of Plants," p. 908), the first reference to Alagnolia glauca was 

 made in a report of some navigators, in 1584, who, proceeding 

 to Roanoke Island (North Carolina), found " the tree that bear- 

 eth rind of the Black Synamon, of which like Captain Winter 

 brought from the Streights of Magellaun." It is found from 

 New York and New Jersey through the Atlantic States, gener- 

 ally near the coast, to Florida, and through the Gulf States into 

 Texas. In the southern States it sometimes becomes a large 

 tree sixty or seventy feet high, with a trunk three ©r four feet 

 in diameter, and is an evergreen. 



It has been suggested by some enthusiasts that this should 

 be chosen as the "national flower," if we must have one. 

 But, although the exquisite beauty and fragrance of the flower 



