﻿472 C. S. Sargent — Journey of Andre Miehaux. 



brook and stretches up to the mountains ; and here with Epigea 

 repens may still be found Michaux's little " arbuste" with its 

 "feuilles denticulees, v the Shorlia of Torrey and Gray.* 



There is no mention in Michaux's Journal of his discovery of 

 the Magnolia cordata of his Flora, and no satisfactory record 

 exists that any American botanist has ever collected in a wild 

 state this plant as it is known in cultivation. The younger 

 Miehaux in his Sylva says : — " the banks of the Savannah in 

 upper Georgia and those of the stream which traverses the back 

 parts of South Carolina are the place where my father and my- 

 self particularly observed this tree." A careful examination 

 made by me on this region and extending over two years, has 

 not resulted in the discovery of M. cordata, nor does this tree 

 now grow on the Savannah River about Augusta, where the 

 younger Miehaux says that he found it also. 



The Magnolia cordata, as known in gardens, differs from M. 

 acuminata in its thicker branchlets, its less pyramidal habit, 

 and in its generally broader leaves, sometimes, though rarely, 

 sub-cordate at the base, darker green above and more densely 

 pubescent beneath. These appear earlier in the spring and 

 remain upon the trees somewhat later in the autumn. The 

 flowers are often less than half the size of those of M. acuminata 

 and are bright yellow instead of pale yellow or green in color. 

 The two trees growing side by side in gardens certainly look 

 distinct: but at different points in the Blue Ridge in North 

 and South Carolina and Georgia and on the mountains of North 

 Alabama, individual Magnolias grow with leaves and flowers 

 intermediate in shape and color between those of M. acuminata 

 and the M. cordata of gardens, which indicate the close connec- 

 tion between these two species. The specimens collected by 

 Dr. Chas. Mohr in Winston County, Alabama, are nearly iden- 

 tical with the cultivated M. cordata, while other specimens 



* The botanical readers of this Journal are familiar with the interesting history 

 of this plant In 1839 Dr. Asa Gray found among the undescribed plants of the 

 Miehaux Herbarium in the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, a single speci- 

 men, in fruit only, of a Pyrola-like plant collected in the high mountains of Caro- 

 lina, and which he characterized as the type of the new genus which now com- 

 memorates the botanical labors of Dr. Chas. W. Short of Kentucky. A second 

 species of Shortia discovered afterwards in Japan confirmed the characters and 

 validity of the genus ; but for many years all efforts to rediscover Michaux's plant, 

 although diligently and widely sought by every botanical traveler in the Carolina 

 mountains, failed. In May, 1877, however, Shortia was unexpectedly discovered 

 near Marion, North Carolina, at a considerable distance from the high mountains, 

 by G-. M. Hyams; so that this second rediscovery is principally interesting in the 

 light it throws upon the route taken by Miehaux in his winter journey. There 

 can be no reasonable doubt that Shortia was the u Arbuste" with "/. denticulees" 

 of the Diary, although the term "Arbuste" is misleading. Shortia is not a shrub, 

 of course, but an herb with stoloniferous stems. The plants gathered by Miehaux 

 " in great quantities " probably all perished before reaching France or could not 

 be made to adapt themselves to cultivation. At any rate, there is nothing to in- 

 dicate that such a plant was ever cultivated in the Paris garden. 



