1)0 MAUNOLIACEjE. 



firmly persistent on the elongated receptacle, at length de- 

 hiscent down the back, two-seeded. Seeds hanging by a 

 delicate, extensile cord of unrolled spiral vessels (contained 

 in the short and fleshy funiculus and placenta), large, glob- 

 ular, drupaceous ; the fleshy testa very thick and at length 

 pulpy (scarlet or bright red); the tegmen bony-crustaceous, 

 widely grooved on the inner side and at the summit (corre- 

 sponding with the broad, impressed raphe and chalaza). 

 Embryo minute, at the base of the fleshy and oily homo- 

 geneous albumen ; the short and thick radicle next the 

 hilum : cotyledons short. 



Trees, or sometimes shrubs, with very showy and usu- 

 ally large blossoms and foliage ; the leaves entire, or merely 

 auriculate at the base, feather-veined, deciduous, or some- 

 times persistent through the winter, when thin often indis- 

 tinctly pellucid-punctate, alternate, or by approximation often 

 appearing as if whorled, on stout petioles, which, separating 

 by a distinct articulation, leave broad scars on the otherwise 

 smooth and terete branches. Flowers solitary, terminal, 

 white or greenish-yellow, rarely purplish. Buds terete, 

 acute ; their integuments formed entirely of the ample mem- 

 branaceous stipules : these are adnate to the base of the peti- 

 ole, and involute, with their opposite edges united ; each 

 pair thus inclosing the succeeding conduplicate leaf with the 

 rest of the bud to which it is longitudinally appressed, de- 

 ciduous as the leaves sucessively unfold, leaving their scars 

 upon the branch in the form of narrow rings. Cone of fruit 

 usually red or rose-color at maturity. 



Etymology. This superb genus is dedicated to Magnol, Professor of Bot- 

 any at Montpellier at the close of the seventeenth century, and who first indi- 

 cated natural families in botany. — The name was originally given by Plu- 

 mier to a West Indian tree of the order, the type of the genus Talauraa, 

 Juss., and which was confounded by Linnaeus with the allied plants which 

 now bear the name. 



Properties. Bitter and slightly aromatic, with some acridity ; the bark, 

 especially of the root, and also the cones and seeds, have been employed 

 as a stimulant tonic. The flowers of some species are highly fragrant. 



