THE MAGNOLIA FAMILY 



MAGNOLIACE^ J. St. Hilaire 



■lAGNOLIACE^ include about lo genera, comprising some 85 species 

 of trees and shrubs, widely distributed in temperate and tropical 

 regions. Besides the trees here described, the North American flora 

 contains two species of Illicium, shrubs of the southeastern States, 

 and Schizandra coccinea Michaux, a climbing shrub or woody vine, ranging from 

 North Carolina to Florida and Louisiana. 



The Magnoliaceae have alternate petioled leaves, stipulate, at least in the bud, 

 and large solitary flowers. The sepals and petals are imbricated in whorls of 

 three, hypogynous and deciduous, the petals often in two or three whorls, thus 

 6 or 9 in number; the stamens are numerous, borne on the lower part of the recep- 

 tacle, which is often elongated, the pistils also numerous, borne above the stamens 

 on the receptacle, ripening into an aggregate cone-like fruit, composed of many 

 I -seeded or 2 -seeded folUcles or achenes. 



The aromatic and bitter principles pervading the sap of these plants have 

 caused the use, particularly in the tropics, of the barks of a great many of them 

 as tonic and febrifuge remedies; this appUcation is quite local, however, except in 

 the case of the so-called Star anise, the fruit of Illicium verum J. D. Hooker, of 

 southeastern China noted for its anise-hke odor, the volatile oil being used in- 

 discriminately as oil of aniseed; the fruits of some of the species of this genus, 

 especially /. anisalum Linnaeus, of Japan, are very poisonous. Many of the 

 plants are highly ornamental. 



The two arborescent genera of our flora are: 



Leaves net lobed; fruit a cone of fleshy follicles. i. Magnolia. 



Leaves 4-lobed or 6-lobed; fruit a spindle-shaped cone of dry carpels. 2. Liriodendron. 



I. THE MAGNOLIAS 



GENUS MAGNOLIA [PLUMIER] LINN^US 



I HIS genus includes some 25 species of trees and shrubs, natives of 

 eastern North America, eastern and central Asia, southern Mexico, 

 and the West Indies. All our species are trees with bitter bark. 

 The leaves are entire-margined, pinnately veined, their stipules 

 (scales in the bud) falling away as the buds open. The large flowers are solitary 

 at the ends of the branches, stalkless or short-stalked. There are three more or 



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