MAGNOLIA FAMILY 



minal, cream-white blossoms appear in May. They are from 

 eight to ten inches across and exhale a disagreeable odor. 

 The name tripetala refers to the three petaloid sepals. 



The Magnolia shrubs found in northern gardens whose 

 great white or pink flowers appear before the leaves are of 

 Chinese or Japanese origin. 



The science of Paleobotany is fragmentary as yet, but 

 enough is already known to give us a wonderful outlook into 

 the life history of our common plants. It is evident that im- 

 mediately preceding the glacial period the polar regions were 

 not covered with ice, but sustained a rich growth of vegeta- 

 tion, and plants flourished there which are now known only in 

 warmer countries. The genus Magnolia to-day is sub-tropi- 

 cal. Its species are found only in southeastern North America, 

 southern Mexico, and southern Asia. But the scientists tell 

 us that once it flourished abundantly throughout America 

 and Europe, and its fossil remains are found in the tertiary 

 rocks of Greenland and elsewhere within the arctic circle. 



Professor G. Frederick Wright, in " The Ice Age in North 

 America," admirably presents the latest opinion in regard to 

 the flight of the forests. He writes as follows : "The key 

 applied by Professor Gray for the solution of this problem 

 was suggested by the investigations of Heer and others, which 

 had just brought out the fact that, during the Tertiary period, 

 just before the beginning of the Ice Age, a temperate climate, 

 corresponding to that of latitude 35° on the Atlantic coast, 

 extended far up toward the North Pole, permitting Green- 

 land and Spitzbergen to be covered with trees and plants 

 similar in most respects to those found at the present time 

 in Virginia and North Carolina. Here, indeed, in close prox- 

 imity to the North Pole, were then residing in harmony and 

 contentment, the ancestors of nearly all the plants and ani- 

 mals which are now found in the north temperate zone, and 

 here they would have continued to stay but for the cold 

 breath of the approaching Ice Age, which drove them from 

 their homes, and compelled them to migrate to more hospita- 

 ble latitudes. 



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