46 FAMIITJJ! GARIlEX FLOlFEliS. 



purple colouring, and some twenty or more that Uaxe been 

 seloc'ted, named, and established as garden varieties, attest 

 the power of the eolonriiig principle to give special clia- 

 racters to llowers which, so fnr as we know, arc normally 

 colourless. The mere occuircuce oF varieties, as the result 

 of raising seedlings, belongs to the region of the merest 

 commonplace. Any one who will oliserve critically tlie 

 horse-chestnuts at Eushey in the season of their liowcr- 

 ing will Iiave no difficulty in determining fifty or more 

 distinct vai'ietics, differing very considerably both in leaf 

 and flower. The reason we do not select, name, and estab- 

 lish tliese is because, as varieties^ we do not value them. 

 Were magnolias as plentiful and as easily multiplied as 

 horse-chestnuts, probably we should not have recognised 

 as "a very fine variety" the beautiful subject here figured. 

 It is a delicate problem how far our knowledge and our 

 opinions of the methods of Nature are influenced by our 

 superflcial notions of the beautiful, for often we are 

 arrested, and it may l^e rebuked, Ijy the exceeding beauty 

 of things we commonly and unconcernedly tread beneath 

 our feet. 



This deciduous magnolia was introduced from China in 

 the year 1789, and soon after a few of its varieties were 

 olitained from the same productive country. When grow- 

 ing freely it is a lumpy-headed, large-leaved tree, that may 

 be properly associated with the catalpa and the paulownia, 

 although it is not directly related to either. But they 

 agree in their round-headed, leafy character, their exceeding 

 attractiveness when in flower, and their need of shelter 

 from the northern and eastern blasts that so often damage 

 the exotic vegetation of our parks and gardens. 



The best known of this group of trees is the mao-nifi- 



