154 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



Here we recognize Bartram's Gordonia lasianthus, which in 

 Coleridge's notebook got mixed with "" the never bloomiess 

 furze." Of this plant Bartram writes: 



Its thick foliage, of a dark green colour, is flowered over with large 

 milk-white fragrant blossoms, on long slender elastic peduncles, at the 

 extremities of its numerous branches, from the bosom of the leaves, and 

 renewed every morning. ... It at the same time continually pushes 

 forth new twigs, with young buds on them; and in the winter and 

 spring the third year's leaves, now partly concealed by the new and per- 

 fect ones, are gradually changing colour, from green to golden yellow, 

 from that to a scarlet, from scarlet to crimson. ... So that the Gordonia 

 lasianthus may he said to change and renew its garments every morning 

 . . . throughout the year; and every day appears with unfading lustre 

 (pp. 161-162). 



In the next stanza the youth 



told of the magnolia, spread 

 High as a cloud, high over head! 

 The q'press and her spire; 

 — Of flowers that with one scarlet gleam 

 Cover a hundred leagues, and seem 

 To set the hills on fire (stanza xi). 



Wordsworth himself explained in a footnote that by the " mag- 

 nolia " he meant the " magnolia grandiflora." ^^ Of course, 

 Bartram refers to this tree in numerous other places, and it is 

 more plausible to assume that Wordsworth had in mind more 

 descriptive references than the one pointed out by Professor 

 Knight; such, for example, as these: " The Laurel Magnolias, 

 which grow on this river, are the most beautiful and tall 

 I have anywhere seen. . . . Their usual height is about one 

 hundred feet, and some greatly exceed that " (pp. 85-86) . " The 

 towering Magnolia, itself a grove " (p. 160) . Here is the source 

 not only of Wordsworth's " magnolia " but of " spread High 

 as a cloud, high over head! " The next line: " The cypress and 

 her spire," enables us to discover an even closer indebtedness. 

 Professor Knight traces Wordsworth's cypress to Bartram's 



^■^ Prof. Knight added to this footnote a reference to Bartram, p. 8. The page 

 reference is probably a misprint, for in both the original Philadelphia edition 

 and the London reprint, Bartram's reference to "" the great Laurel Tree (Magnolia 

 grandiflora) " appears on page 6. 



