PLANTS GROWING IN MUD. 69 
SMALL MAGNOLIA. SWEET BAY. 
Magnolia Virgintana. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Magnolia. White. Fragrant. Along the coast. June, Juiy. 
Flowers : solitary; terminal at the end of the branches. Calyx: of three 
sepals on the receptacle. Corolla: of six to nine rounded petals. Stamens: 
numerous. Pisti/s: numerous; arranged in the shape of a cone. #72: cone- 
like; red, with one or two scarlet seeds. Leaves: alternate ; obovate ; pointed ; 
downy and whitish underneath. A shrub four to twenty feet high, leafy, branch- 
ing. 
Asthe summers return to us, the lovely, fragrant blossoms 
of the magnolia find their way back to the swamps. The 
shrub is one with which the children have hardly made a fair 
compact. With their ruthless little fingers, they strip it of its 
petals, which they put into bottles and cover with alcohol. A 
few shakes areall that is then necessary to transform the decoc- 
tion into the “ most delightful perfume,’ and they offer it to 
their friends at a price much below that of the market. 
ROSE MALLOW. SWAMP MALLOW. (Plate XX/X.) 
Hibiscus Moscheutos. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Mallow. Pink. Scentless. Along the coast. August. 
Flowers : large ; seven to eight inches in diameter; solitary. Calyx: of five 
green sepals surrounded by an under layer of twelve slender, pointed bracts. 
Corolla : of five pink petals that become magenta at the base. Stamens: in- 
numerable ; growing out from all sides of a formation wrapped about the style. 
Pistils : five united into one. Stigmas: five; resembling tiny mushrooms. 
Leaves: on petioles; the larger and lower ones three-lobed; the upper ones 
ovate; downy underneath. Sve : erect ; high, reaching six and eight feet. 
In late August, when the rose mallow rises to its stately 
height among the tall grasses of the salt marshes, the passer-by 
pauses and gives it the admiration it claims. Undoubtedly itis 
the most gorgeous of all the plants indigenous to the United 
States. An old gentleman who had loved it from childhood al- 
ways said of it: “It is the flower that I take off my hat to.” 
And he did not regard it as inferior to the Chinese rose hibiscus 
which is cultivated in our greenhouses. It is from the petals of 
the latter species that the women in China extract the black dye 
to colour their teeth with. Although at a great distance the 

