April 24, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



161 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YORK. N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1895. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles :— Magnolias as Garden Plants. (With figure.) i6i 



TheParkman Memorial 162 



Forestry and the Abandoned Farm Professor C. S. Plumb. 162 



A Valuable Fruit-tree for the High North C V. Hartman. 162 



Bull Pine in the West Pro/essor Charles A. Keffer. 163 



Plant Notes 164 



Cultural Department:— Flower Garden Notes E. O. Orpet. 166 



A Few Desirable Plants T. D. Hatfield. 167 



The Earliest Daffodils J.N. Gerard. 167 



Christmas Roses B. M. Watson. \ti 



Pot Bulbs for Earl)^ Spring L. 167 



Double English Primroses E. O. Orpet. 167 



Cyrtopodium punctatum Q. 167 



Correspondence : — The Olive and the Lernon in Southern California, 



Wjii. M. Tisdale. 168 



Notes from West Virginia Danske Dandrid^e. 168 



Some Hyacinths and Grape Hyacinths J. N. Gerard. 169 



R ECENT Publications i6g 



Notes.. 



70 



Illustration ; — Magnolia macrophylla, at Wellesley, Massachusetts, Fig. 26.. . 165 



Magnolias as Garden Plants. 



THE illustration on page 165 of this issue, made from 

 a photograph of a tree in Mr. Hunnevvell's garden at 

 Wellesley, in eastern Massachusetts, shows that this south- 

 ern plant is capable of flourishing in regions of far greater 

 cold than that which usually prevails in its native home. 

 Of all the Magnolias, a genus celebrated for its large and 

 handsome flowers and large leaves, this species produces 

 the largest flowers and leaves, and the flowers and leaves 

 of no other inhabitant of extra-tropical forests equal them 

 in size. 



Magnolia macrophylla is a stately tree, with horizontal 

 wide-spreading branches, and in its native forests some- 

 times attains a height of fifty feet and produces a trunk 

 eighteen or twenty inches in diameter. The leaves, which 

 are clustered at the ends of the stout branches, are bright 

 light green on the upper surface and silvery white on the 

 lower, often thirty inches long and nine or ten inches 

 broad, and form a splendid setting to the creamy-white 

 fragrant flowers which, when fully expanded, are often 

 twelve inches in diameter. Photographs or words cannot 

 express the beauty of one of these trees when it is in 

 bloom, or convey any idea of the solemnity of the great 

 flowers, which one cannot contemplate without a feeling 

 of reverence and awe and a sense of wonder that Nature 

 in her wisdom and for some good purpose has placed in 

 our forests of Oaks and Pines such a marvel of rich and 

 gorgeous beauty. 



Magnolia macrophylla belongs to a region of luxuriant 

 and varied forest-growth, its home being at the base of the 

 southern Alleghany Mountains, where it is distributed from 

 western North Carolina and south-eastern Kentucky to 

 middle and western Florida and southern Alabama, extend- 

 ing also through northern Mississippi and inhabiting cen- 

 tral Arkansas. Known only in a few widely separated 

 stations in the Atlantic states, this tree is more abundant 

 west of the Alleghany Mountains, and seems to grow toils 

 largest size in some sheltered limestone valleys of northern 

 Alabama. Protection from the wind is essential to it, as 

 its great delicate leaves are easily torn to pieces and de- 



stroyed by the wind, and it is always found in small 

 groves in forest-glades or little valleys, surrounded and 

 often overshadowed by Swamp Chestnut Oaks, Dogwoods, 

 Hickories and Gum-trees. It is a century since the elder 

 Michaux, the French botanist and traveler who- explored 

 eastern North America under the auspices of the French 

 Government, discovered this tree near the town of Char- 

 lotte, in North Carolina, but it has never been much culti- 

 vated or become very well known in gardens. That it is 

 not more often seen in those of the northern states is cer- 

 tainly surprising, for, after its first years when young plants 

 are better for a little protection, it is very hardy and begins 

 to flower when only a few years old. In Europe, especially 

 in England, Magnolia macrophylla feels the want of the 

 hot summers and dry autumns of eastern America to ripen 

 its wood, and, like many other North American trees, does 

 not flower satisfactorily. This is true of most other Mag- 

 nolias, which, as a general rule, are more satisfactory gar- 

 den plants in the eastern United States and in China and 

 Japan than in other parts of the world — a fact that is ex- 

 plained by the distribution of the genus which is now 

 chiefly confined to eastern America and eastern Asia, al- 

 though four species extend into the forests of the tropical 

 eastern Himalaya. 



Twenty Magnolias are known, although it is not im- 

 probable that others will yet be found in the almost unex- 

 plored foi-ests that cover the mountains of south-western 

 China, where trees of various genera abound and where 

 one species of Magnolia is already known. 



The Magnolias can be grouped into two sections. Those 

 of the first section produce flowers before the appearance 

 of the leaves, while in those of the second section the 

 flowers do not open until after the leaves have grown to 

 their full size. All the American Magnolias belong to the 

 second of these sections, the species with precocious flow- 

 ers being confined to Japan, China and India. To this 

 section belong the Chinese Yulan Magnolia, Magnolia con- 

 spicua, and its various hybrids and varieties ; Magnolia 

 Kobus, a large tree of northern Japan ; Magnolia salici- 

 folia, of northern Hondo, a small shrubby tree with fragrant 

 foliage, recently introduced into cultivation ; the shrubby 

 Magnolia stellata, and Magnolia Campbellii, of Sikkim, a 

 stately tree with rose-colored or pink flowers. This tree, 

 which, unfortunately, is not hardy in the northern states, 

 has produced flowers in southern Ireland, and it may pos- 

 sibly thrive in our southern states, where its cultivation 

 certainly should be attempted. 



Of exotic species of the first section Magnolia hypoleuca 

 is best worth cultivating in this country. It is a noble 

 tree, growing sometimes in the forests of Yezo to a height 

 of one hundred feet, with large leaves arranged in whorls 

 at the ends of the branches, and large flowers with white 

 sepals and petals, and prominent cones of bright red car- 

 pels. In foliage and flowers Magnolia hypoleuca resem- 

 bles our American Magnolia tripetala, but it is a larger and 

 handsomer tree and much hardier in the northern states. 



In the great evergreen Magnolia of the southern states 

 the temperate countries of the world have the most beauti- 

 ful evergreen tree known in gardens. With its smaller but 

 more fragrant flowers and its lustrous leaves, deciduous at 

 the north and persistent at the south, the Swamp Bay, Mag- 

 nolia glauca, is an ornamental tree of peculiar charm and 

 beauty. These two and Magnolia macrophylla are the 

 most valuable of the American Magnolias among orna- 

 mental trees, but the other species have each their peculiar 

 beauty, and Magnolia acuminata is also an important 

 timber-tree. ""^ 



We have desired, in writing these notes on Magnolias, to 

 call attention to the fact that our climate is specially suited 

 to the cultivation of these trees. All the American species, 

 with the exception of the evergreen Magnolia of ihe south, 

 are perfectly hardy as far north as eastern New England. 

 Magnolia hypoleuca and Magnolia Kobus are apparently 

 as hardy here as in their native forests of Yezo, and prom- 

 ise to grow here to a largfe size. Magnolia Watsoni and 



