Magnolia 1591 



membranous, narrowly elliptic, 4 to 8 (rarely 12) in. long, 2 to 3 (rarely 4) in. broad, 

 shortly acuminate at the apex, slightly pubescent when young, but glabrous on both 

 surfaces when mature, light green above, pale beneath ; petioles glabrous. 



Flowers appearing before the leaves, globose, 6 to 10 in. across, delicately 

 scented, deep rosy pink ^ externally, cream-white internally ; sepals three, similar in 

 shape and colour to the nine or twelve petals, all elliptic-oblong, and rounded at the 

 apex. Fruit about six inches long, cylindric, with red seeds. (A. H.) 



This species is a native of Sikkim and Bhutan, occurring, according to Gamble 

 and Hooker, at elevations of 8000 to 10,000 ft. ; but I have seen it in the Rangirun 

 forest, near Darjeeling, below the road leading to Pashok, which cannot be higher 

 than 7000 ft. Hooker^ describes it as a large forest tree with black bark, often 80 ft. 

 high and 1 2 to 20 ft. in girth ; and Gamble says that, according to King, specimens 

 150 ft. high were common in Sikkim in 1849, but that the demand for building timber 

 and tea-box boards has made large trees scarce. Though the tree itself is not a 

 handsome one, it is impossible to exaggerate its beauty when seen in April standing 

 leafless, but covered with its immense rosy flowers among the chestnuts, oaks, and 

 other trees, in one of the most beautiful forests in the world. 



Repeated attempts were made to introduce this species by seed ; but on arrival 

 the fleshy albumen was always found decayed and the minute embryo killed. 

 Ultimately, about 1880, living plants were sent to Kew from the Calcutta Botanic 

 Gardens. 



It is perfectly hardy at Kew, and has attained a considerable size in the milder 

 parts of this country ; but apparently requires a greater degree of heat and moisture 

 in summer, and remains usually in a bushy state. It flowered for the first time in 

 Europe in 1885 in Mr. Crawford's garden at Lakelands, Cork, and was then figured 

 in the Botanical Magazine. It has since flowered at several places, as in 1898 at 

 Veitch's nursery* at Exeter, where it had been growing in the open for 

 twelve years, and at Leonardslee* in 1907, when it was about 20 ft. high. At 

 Abbotsbury,' where it was about 25 ft. high in 1903, it is the earliest of 

 all the species in flower, being two or three weeks in advance of M. stellata and 

 M. conspicua. A specimen at Belgrove,^ Cork, produced 147 flowers in 1903; 

 but the late Mr. Gumbleton stated that in other years either no buds were set or the 

 flowers never opened, having been killed by frosts and cold winds. Nicholson 

 mentions' a fine specimen at Fota, 25 ft. high in 1895, which produced beautiful 

 flowers of a much richer tint than those at Lakelands. (H. J. E.) 



1 The flowers are variable in the depth of the pink hue ; and are occasionally white. 



^ Him. Joum. i. 125 (1854), where he mentions that Rhododendron Dalhousim often grows epiphytically upon its 

 branches. 



8 Card. Chron. xxiii. 89, fig. 33 (1898). < Ibid. xlii. 3 (1907). 



6 Ibid, xxxiii. 174, fig. 73 (1903). This tree was, when I saw it in July 1912, about 30 ft. high and 2\ ft. in 

 girth. — A. H. * Ibid. xxxiiL 172 (1903) and xlii. 33 (1907). ' Ibid. xvii. 515 (1895). 



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