30 ARBORETUM EL FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 
39. Magnolia acuminata. 
and cordate acuminate. The flowers are 4 or 5 inches in diameter, bluish, 
and sometimes white, with a tint of yellow. They have but a feeble odour, 
and the petals are never fully expanded, though, as they are large and 
numerous, they have a fine effect in the midst of the superb foliage. 
Plants raised from seeds do not usually produce flowers till they are 
eight or ten years old, when the tree will probably be from 15 ft. to 20 ft. 
in height; but plants raised from layers produce flowers in two or three 
years. The fruit is about 3in. long, and nearly 1] in. in diameter. It is 
nearly cylindrical, and often a little larger at the summit than at the base: it 
is convex on one side, and concave on the other; and, when green, it nearly 
resembles a young cucumber : it becomes rose-coloured when ripe; and, as 
in the case of the cther species, the seeds, before they drop, remain sus- 
pended for some time by long white threads. The wood of this tree is of a 
fine grain, and of an orange colour. A free, deep, and rather moist soil answers 
best for this species ; but, as it is much hardier than any of the others in this 
section, it will grow in almost any soil that is moderately free, and not over- 
charged with moisture. It is generally propagated in the London nurseries 
by layers, the plants so produced flowering much sooner than seedlings ; but 
the latter, as they make far more durable plants, should always be preferred 
when this species is used as a stock to graft or inarch others on. It is so used 
very generally, not only for M. auriculata and cordata, but for M. conspicua 
and Soulangedza. The plants are, in some nurseries, grown in the free soil ; 
but it is always preferable to rear them in pots; because, in that case, 
they are not checked by transplanting, and at least a year is gained in their 
growth. 
* 6. M.(a.) corpa‘ta Mx. The heart-leaved Magnolia. 
Identification. Mich. Bor. Amer., 1. p.328.; Dec. Prod., 1. p. 80.; Don’s Mill, 1. p.83.; Tor. 
and Gray, He 43, 
Sunonymes. The neart-leaved Cucumber Tree, A-ner.; Magnolier a Feuilles en Coeur, Fr. ; herz- 
blattriger Bieberbaum, Ger. 
