1586 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



M. glauca is a native of the eastern parts of the United States, where it is 

 known as Sweet or Swamp Bay, being an evergreen tree in the south, and becoming 

 deciduous in the north. It occurs in one or two stations in Massachusetts and Long 

 Island, and is distributed along the coast from New Jersey to Florida, ranging 

 inland to Franklin County in Pennsylvania ; and extending through the Gulf States 

 to south-western Arkansas and Trinity River in Texas. It usually grows in swamps 

 and along the borders of the ponds in the pine barrens ; and attains its largest size 

 in Florida. 



This species was introduced by Banister, who sent it to Bishop Compton, at 

 Fulham, in 1688. Loudon mentions several places in England where it was cultivated 

 in 1838, and states that it frequently ripened seed. It is now a rare tree, seldom 

 seen ^ except in botanic gardens. The finest specimen that we know is at White 

 Knights, an old tree about 30 feet high in 1905. It is said by Sargent to grow better 

 when grafted on stocks of M. acuminata than on its own roots. (H. J. E.) 



MAGNOLIA ACUMINATA, Cucumber Tree 



Magnolia acuminata, Linnaeus, Syst. ii. 1082 (1759); Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 2427 (1823); Loudon, 

 Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 273 (1838); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. i. 7, tt. 4, 5 (1890), and Trees N. 

 Amer. 319 (1905). 



A deciduous tree, attaining in America 60 to 90 ft. in height, and 10 to 12 ft. 

 in girth. Bark \ in. thick, furrowed, scaly. Young branchlets, with dense appressed 

 whitish pubescence towards the base, elsewhere with scattered long hairs. Leaves 

 oval, 6 to 9 in. long, 4 to 5 in. broad, acuminate at the apex, broad and rounded 

 or cuneate at the base ; upper surface dark green, dull, with a scattered minute 

 pubescence on the surface, denser on the midrib ; lower surface pale, with scattered 

 wavy white hairs ; petiole pubescent. 



Flowers on pubescent stalks, campanulate, greenish yellow or glaucous green, 

 about 2 to 3^^ in. long ; sepals membranous, soon reflexed ; petals six, ovate or 

 obovate, pointed, upright, those of the outer row much broader than those of the 

 inner row. Fruit glabrous, dark red, 3 in. long. 



In winter the branchlets are reddish, glabrous ; marked with V-shaped six-dotted 

 leaf-scars, the two apices of which are continuous with a linear scar encircling the 

 stem and indicating the fall of the stipule. Buds surrounded by a single scale, 

 pubescent with silky hairs, the terminal bud much larger than the lateral buds. 



I. Var. cordata, Sargent, m Amer. Journ. Science, xxxii. 473 (1886), Silva N. 

 Amer. i. 8, t. 6 (1890), and Trees N. Amer. 320 (1905). 



Magnolia cordata, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Amer. i. 328 (1803); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 275 

 (1838). 



A small tree, with leaves more greyish pubescent beneath than in the type, and 

 rarely cordate at the base. Flowers smaller, bright canary yellow. 



1 Bunbury, Arb. Notes, 55 (1889), states that two trees planted at Barton, Suffolk, in 1861, died in a few years. 



