526 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
opening, protected by 2 ample, deciduous stipules, convolute and 
terminating the branches with a conical point, and when fallen, 
leaving a lasting annular mark. The flowers are of extraordi- 
nary size and splendor, and generally exhale a delicious fra- 
erance, which often acts powerfully upon the nerves. Almost 
every part of the plant, especially the bark and the fruit, is 
highly aromatic and tonic, the bark containing a bitter principle, 
which has often been used as a substitute for Peruvian bark, on 
account of its stimulant, stomachic, febrifugal properties. 
The flowers are distinguished by having a calyx of 3 or 6 
sepals, which fall as they expand; a corolla of from 3 to 30 
petals usually disposed in threes; very numerous stamens with 
long, close anthers; and 1, a few, or, most commonly, very many 
ovaries arranged on acentral cone. The fruit consists of nu- 
merous 1- or 2-seeded vessels, aggregated or grown together like 
the strobile of a pine; embryo minute, at the base of fleshy 
albumen. 
Of this family, there are two genera found growing in Massa- 
chusetts ; the 
Magnoha, distinguished by its seed-vessels opening to allow 
the escape of the seed; and 
The Tulip Tree, Lariodéndron, with seed-vessels not opening ; 
and with leaves truncate at the end. 
XL. 1. THE MAGNOLIA. MAGNOLIA. L. 
This genus, named for Magnol, a distinguished botanist of 
Montpelier, in France, contains trees, except M. glauca,—which 
in. the Northern States is only a shrub,—all of them beautiful and 
some of them among the finest and most splendid trees that are 
known. It is distinguished by having a calyx of 3 caducous 
sepals, resembling petals, and a corolla of 3 to 12 deciduous 
petals. ‘The carpels are 1- or 2-seeded, opening by the external 
angle, and permanent, and forming a fruit like the conc of a 
pine. ‘I'he seeds are like a berry, somewhat heart-shaped, and 
hanging suspended, when ripe and escaped from the carpel, by 
a long, slender thread. 
There is only one species known as naturally growing in 
