MAGNOLIACEiE^MAGNOLIA FAMILY 



SWAMP MAGNOLIA. SMALL MAGNOLIA. 

 SWEET BAY 



Mas^'iiolia g/anca. 



Magnolia was named by Linnasus in honor of Pierre Magnol, an 

 eminent botanist who lived in the seventeenth century. Glatcca, 

 glaucous, refers to the under surface of the leaf. 



A small tree, nearly evergreen, with slender trunk. In the Gulf 

 States It reaches the height of seventy feet, with a trunk two or three 

 feet in diameter, but at the north it is reduced to a shrub. Roots 

 fleshy. Prefers swamps and wet soils. Ranges from Essex County, 

 Massachusetts, to Long Island, from New Jersey to Florida, west 

 in the Gulf region to Texas. 



Bark. — Light brown, scaly ; on young trees light gray, smooth. 

 Branchlets green at first, downy, later reddish brown ; bitter, aro- 

 matic. 



Wood. — Light brown tinged with red, sapwood cream - white. 

 Sparingly used in manufactures at the south. Sp.gr. 0.5035 ; weight 

 of cu. ft., 31. 3S lbs. 



Winter Buds . — Terete, pointed, downy, formed of successive pairs 

 of stipules, each pair enveloping the leaf just above. Flower-bud 

 enclosed in a stipular, caducous bract. 



Leaves. — Alternate, simple, feather-veined, subpersistent, four to 

 six inches long, one and one-half to two and one-half inches broad, 

 oblong or oval, rounded or pointed at base, entire, obtuse at apex ; 

 midrib conspicuous. They come out of the bud conduplicate, pale 

 green, covered with long silvery hairs ; «lien full grown are a soft 

 leathery texture, bright green, smooth and shining abo\e, pale, glau- 

 cous beneath, sometimes almost white. At the north they fall late 

 in November, at the south the leaves remain with little change of 

 color until pushed off by the new leaves in the spring. Petiole short, 

 slender. 



