SWEETBAY 
Magnolia virginiana Linnaeus 
Sweetbay is found in swampy woods or deep swamps whete it is 
usually a shrub, although sometimes attaining the size of a tree. The 
leathery leaves are silvery beneath, and their upper surface is a rich 
dark green. The solitary flowers are borne at the tips of the branches, 
where the creamy petals contrast pleasingly with the deeply colored 
foliage. Their delicious and pervasive odor is theit greatest attraction. 
Long after the flowers have passed they are succeeded by a cone- 
shaped fruit in which, when fully ripe, the separate parts split open, 
and the seeds with their bright red fleshy covering dangle by slender 
threads. When the thread finally breaks, the seeds are blown by the 
wind to substantial distances. While beavers wete abundant they 
felled the trunks of these trees for building their dams, and they were 
so fond of the bark that it was employed Page to bait beaver 
traps. Sweetbay is often called beaver tree. 
This striking member of the Magnolia Family is found atound 
the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Texas and Arkansas, and north- 
ward along the Atlantic coastal plain to Pennsylvania and Massachu- 
setts. It always grows in the most acid of soils, and thrives in culti- 
vation only if planted in such soils. 
It grows plentifully in the neighborhood of Washington, District 
of Columbia, where this specimen was found. 
PLATE 325 
