26 -ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUOM. 
i 
36. Magndlia glatca Thompsonidna. 
Other Varieties. M. glatica Gordonidna and M. glaiica Burchelliana are 
names found in nurserymen’s catalogues, of varieties said to have double or 
semi-double flowers. 4. g. longifolia Pursh is supposed to be an abori- 
ginal variety, and sub-evergreen ; but we think it probably the same variety 
as M.g. Thompsonidua, which may have come up wild in America, as well 
as in Mr. Thompson’s nursery. JM. g. Cardonii, M. Cardon J. Knight, is a 
variety imported from Belgium, where it was found by Mr. Knight of 
the Exotic Nursery, in the nursery of M. Cardon, after whom he has 
named it. 
A low tree, nearly evergreen in moist soils, with a slender stem, covered 
with a smooth whitish bark. The wood is white and spongy; the young 
shoots of a fine green. The leaves are smooth, of a bluish green on their 
upper surface, and whitish or glaucous and a little hairy underneath. The 
flowers are produced in May or June, at the extremity of the last year’s shoots. 
They have six concave white petals, and have an agreeable odour. The 
spike or strobile of fruits is an inch or more in length, conical, an inch in 
diameter in the widest part, and of a reddish brown colour when ripe. When 
the plant is in a soil supplied with moisture during the summer, it continues 
to produce flowers till the autumn, and retains part ofits leaves all the winter : 
in dry situations the leaves drop off. Seeds are frequently ripened in Eng- 
land: they are of a bright scarlet, and they hang down by slender white 
threads, as in all the other American species. The young shoots are from 1 ft. 
to 18 in. in length, and the plant, in ordinary circumstances, will attain the 
height of 12 ft.in ten years. Plants are generally raised from seeds imported 
from America, which should be sown in pots of bog earth about the begin- 
ning of March, and placed in gentle heat under glass. In a year they will be 
fit to transplant into small pots; and every year they should be shifted into 
others of a larger size, till wanted for final planting out. M. glaica Thomp- 
soniana, and the other varieties, are propagated by layers, which require two 
years to root properly. 
