Ord. MAGNOLIACEiE. 



Arbores vel arbusculae (acri-amaras et aromatica;) simplici- 

 folias, dicotyledoneas, hypogynas, symmetricse, polyandry sen 

 monadelphas ; perianthio concolori plerumque trimero tri - 

 phiriserali, cestivatione imbricato, mox deciduo ; carpellis dis- 

 cretis vel in syncarpium imbricato-coadunatis ; seminibus ex- 

 arillatis ; embryone in basi albuminis homogenei minimo. 



Magnolia, Juss. Gen. p. 280. 



Magnoliace^: & Wintered, R. Br. ex DC. Syst. J. p. 548. 



Magnoliaceje &. Schizandrace^:, Blume, Fl. Jav. F.ndl. Lindl. 



The Magnolia Family, which comprises some of our most ornamental 

 trees, belongs almost exclusively to the eastern side of both continents, and 

 chiefly to the warmer portion of Eastern North America and to the corre- 

 sponding part of Asia. It has no representatives in Europe or in Africa, 

 and none in Western North America. There are some tropical species, on 

 both sides of the equator ; and two genera are extratropical in the southern 

 hemisphere, namely, in South America and in New Zealand and Southern 

 Australia ; but one of them, the Drimys, or Winter's Bark, has a surpris- 

 ingly extensive range ; the same species, according to Dr. J. D. Hooker, 

 extending through 86 degrees of latitude, from near the southern limit of 

 phaenogamous vegetation to New Grenada and even to Mexico ! 



The family, enlarged as here proposed, so as to include the Schizandreae 

 as well as Wintereae, need be compared only with the order Dilleniaeeae of 

 the southern hemisphere, on the one hand, and with the Anonaceas, on the 

 other. From the former it is absolutely distinguished only by its exarillate 

 seeds, but generally by the trimerous floral envelopes and caducous calyx 

 also. From the latter it is separated by the solid and homogeneous (not ru- 

 minated or lamellar) albumen, and by the imbricated aestivation of the corolla. 



An aromatic principle, due to a pungent ethereal oil and its resin, pervades 

 the family. This is most abundant and pure in the Wintereas ; but is also 

 manifest in Schizandra, at least in the fruit and seeds, and not less so in 

 the Magnolieae, although covered by a bitter principle. It is likewise indicat- 

 ed by the minute pellucid dots of the leaves, or at least of the petals, &c. ; 

 and by the " glandular dots or disks " on the woody tissue, which, although 

 comparatively few and minute in Magnolia and Liriodendron, are beautifully 

 marked in Schizandra, — quite as much so, indeed, as in Illicium and Drimys. 



