MAGNOLIA FAMILY 



Flowers. — June. Perfect, solitary, terminal, cream-white, fra- 

 grant, two to three inches across ; enveloping bract thin, caducous. 



Gz/yjr.— Sepals three, obtuse, concave, shorter than the petals 

 but resembling them, cream-white. 



Corolla. — Petals nine to twelve, in rows of three, hypogynous, im- 

 bricated in bud, cream-white. 



Stamens. — Indefinite, imbricated in rows upon the base of the 

 long conical receptacle ; filaments short ; anthers adnate, two-celled, 

 introrse ; connective fleshy, pointed. 



Pistils. — Indefinite, packed together and covering the lengthened 

 receptacle, cohering with each other and forming an oval mass. 

 Ovaries fleshy, one-celled ; style short ; stigma long, yellow, turned 

 back at the top ; ovules two. 



Fruit. — Scarlet oval mass formed of the coalescent carpels, 

 smooth, two inches long, containing many seeds. Seeds drupaceous, 

 red, shining, aromatic. Suspended at maturity by a long thin cord 

 of unrolled spiral vessels. September, October. 



Long they sat and talked together, . . . 

 Of the marvellous valley hidden in the depths of Gloucester woods, 

 Full of plants that love the summer, blooms of warmer latitudes, 

 Where the Arctic birch is braided by the tropic's flowery vines. 

 And the white magnolia blossoms star the twilight of the pines. 



— John G. Whittier. 



A sheltered swamp near Cape Ann not far from the sea is thought to be the 

 most northern habitation of this plant and until lately was supposed to be the 

 only one in Massachusetts. It has recently been found at the distance of some 

 miles in another swamp in the midst of deep woods in Essex. 



— George B. Emerson. 



Magnolia trees are among the finest productions of the 

 North American forests. They are distinctively southern 

 trees ; two species alone are indigenous to the northern states, 

 and one of these may be looked upon rather as a survival, or 

 a wanderer which has strayed across the border and forgotten 

 to return, than as a resident to the manner born. 



The Swamp Magnolia, or Sweet Bay, to the surprise of botan- 

 ists IS found growing naturally in a sheltered swamp on the 

 peninsula of Cape Ann. That it can live there in so exposed 

 a position without protection from man, proves that it can 

 live elsewhere, in a climate equally severe, with such protec- 

 tion. As a matter of fact it is fairly hardy under cultivation 

 throughout the north, but its leaves are not always evergreen 



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