SWEETBAY 



Magnolia virginiana Linnaeus 



Sweetbay is found in swampy woods or deep swamps where 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 their 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 were abundant they 

 felled the trunks of these trees for building their dams, and they were 

 so fond of the bark that it was employed frequently to bait beaver 

 traps. Sweetbay is often called beaver tree. 



This striking member of the Magnolia Family is found around 

 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 32.5 



