DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERING SHRUBS. 425 
“Few ornamental plants are better worth the attention 
of the gardener. Carefully trained, it forms a beautiful 
little tree. No plant is, at any season and in every con- 
dition, more beautiful. The flower, pure white, two or 
three inches broad, is as beautiful and almost as fragrant 
as the White Lily. The fruit is a cone, about two inches 
long, covered “with scale-like, imbricated ovaries, from 
which, when mature, escape the scarlet oboyate seeds, 
which, instead of falling at once to the ground, remain some 
time suspended by a slender thread. The bark of the 
young shoots is smooth and of a rich apple-green, after- 
wards becoming of a soft glaucous or whitish color.” 
Although naturally growing in wet ground, it will 
flourish in almost any good garden soil, if not excecd- 
ingly dry, particularly if partially shaded from the sun. 
It may be propagated by layers, — which require two 
years to root sufficiently,—or by seed, if great care is 
observed. 
M., conspicua.— White Chinese Magnolia, Yulan.—This 
is called M. Yulan by some botanists. This forms a 
large tree, but flowers when only a few feet high. ' Flow- 
ers white, appearing before the leaves. 
M. purptirea.—Purple Chinese Magnolia.—Similar in 
habit to the foregoing, with long dark-purple flowers. 
Each of these presents several varieties, and there are 
some hybrids. The late A. J. Downing, says: — 
“They are certainly among the most striking and orna- 
mental objects in our pleasure-grounds and shrubberies in 
the spring. Indeed, during the months of April and the 
early part of May, two of them, the White, or Conspicua, 
and Soulange’s Purple, or Soudangiana, eclipse every 
other floral object, whether tree or shrub, that the garden 
contains. Their numerous branches, thickly studded with 
large flowers, most classically shaped, with thick, kid-like 
petals, and rich, spicy odor, wear an aspect of novelty 
