PAINTED BUNTING. 



Passerina ciris ViEiLi/OT. 



Plate XXVIII. Fig. 1. 



^UR grand evergreen magnolia {Magnolia grandiAora) is the queen of the southern 

 forest, the most enchanting tree of the South, as it is the most poetical and 

 dignified. Covered perpetually with large, leathery, gliDssy foliage, embellished, late in 

 April by a wealth of milky-white, deUciously fragrant flowers and growing in an 

 exquisite form, it is not only the most beautiful tree of North America, it is one of the 

 most beautifiil known anywhere. To see this glory of our southern forests in full bloom 

 is worth a journey from a great distance. When I first beheld the magnolia in flower on 

 the picturesque banks of Buffalo Bayou in Houston, Texas, I could not find words to 

 express its beauty and grandeur. The noble trees, furnished with branches almost to 

 the ground, were densely covered with large white flowers, which in a distance looked 

 like stars, each well poised against a background of dense glossy foliage. The air around 

 was scented with a most delicious perfume. I am incapable of describing the impression 

 these grand trees made upon me to my readers. Many years have come and gone since 

 I first saw these majestic trees in all their beauty, nobility, and grandeur, yet their 

 glory is as fresh in my memory to-day as it was then. After securing several flowering 

 branches and observing the many birds among their foliage and blossoms, I resumed 

 my journey, but not w^ithout many "longing, lingering looks behind." 



More than a hundred years ago William Bartram in his "Travels"* gave the fol- 

 fowing glowing description of the magnolia: "Behold yon promontory, projecting far 

 into the great river, beyond the still lagoon, half a mile distant from me. What a 

 magnificent grove arises on its banks! How glorious the palm! How majestically 

 stands the laurel, its head forming a perfect cone! Its dark green foliage seems silvered 

 over with milk-white flowers. They are so large as to be distinctly visible at the 

 distance of a mile or more. The laurel magnolias which grow on the river, are the 

 most beautiful and tall that I have anywhere seen, unless we except those which stand 

 on the banks of the Mississippi ; yet even these must yield to those of the San Juan, in 

 neatness of form, beauty of foliage, and, I think, in largeness and fragrance of flower. 

 Their usual height is about 100 feet, and some greatly exceed that. The trunk is per- 

 fectly erect, rising in the form of a beautiftil column, and supporting a head like an 

 obtuse cone." 



This excellent description had the effect of promoting the culture of this tree largely 

 for ornament in southern Europe, in the milder parts of Great firitain, and even in 

 Japan and China. The most beautiful magnolias are doubtless to be found in the lower 

 Mississippi valley, especially in and near New Orleans, and near Mobile Bay. They are 

 the most exquisite in form, foliage, and flower, being royal in size, almost too symmetrical 



* "Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, Bast and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the 

 extensive Territories of the Muscogulgea or Creek Confederacy, and the country of the Choctaws. By William Bartram. 

 Philadelphia, 1791." 



