280 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



climate of Pekin. The tree was introduced into England by Sir Josepii 

 Banks in 1789; but it was many years before it attracted much attention, being 

 considered as requiring a green-house or conservatory. So little was it known 

 in 1807, that it is not enumerated among the magnolias described in Martyn's 

 Miller's Dictionary, published in that year. Within the last twelve years, 

 it has been discovered to be nearly as hardy as the American species, and it is 

 now most extensively cultivated in the nurseries, both in Britain and on the 

 Continent, and finds a place in every collection. It flowers freely every year, 

 as a standard, in the neighbourhood of London, when the wood has been pro- 

 perly ripened during the preceding summer : and, at White Knights, in England ; 

 at Fromont, and various other places, in France ; and at Monza, in Italy, it 

 has ripened seeds from which young plants have been raised. Some of the 

 flowers having been fecundated with the pollen of M. purpiu'ea or gracilis, 

 some hybrid varieties have been produced, of which the most beautiful is M. 

 c. Soulangeff««. 



Properties and Uses. Besides its value as an ornamental plant, the 

 Chinese pickle the flower-buds, after having removed the calyx, and use them 

 for flavouring lice. Medicinally, the seeds are taken in powder, in colds and 

 inflammations of the chest. It is also regarded as stomachic ; and water, in 

 which it has been steeped, is used for bathing the eyes when inflamed, and for 

 clearing them of gum. The Chinese poets call the tree the symbol of candour 

 and beauty. (iV. Duh., i. p. 225.) 



Soil and Situation. A rich sandy loam seems to suit this species best; but 

 it will grow in any deep free soil, properly drained, and moderately enriched. 

 The situation, when it is to be treated as a standard, ought to be sufficiently 

 open to admit of ripening the wood in autumn, and yet not so warm as to urge 

 forward the flower-buds prematurely in spring, as they are very liable to be 

 injured by frost ; from which, however, they may be protected by a very slight 

 covering (during nights and frosty days) of gauze or bunting, stretched over 

 the tree horizontally and supported by posts. Against a wall, the tree shows 

 itself in its greatest beauty; and there it can easily be protected, by a projecting 

 coping, from the severest weather ever experienced in the neighbourhood of 

 London. In warm situations, sloping to the south or south-east, the tree has 

 a fine effect planted in front of a bank of evergreens ; and, indeed, wherever it 

 is planted, evergreens should be placed near it, and, if possible, so as to form 

 a back ground, on account of the flowers expanding before the tree is furnished 

 with any leaves. 



Propagation and Culture. The species and all the varieties are propagated 

 by layers, or by inarching on the Magnolifl purpurea, or on the M. acuminata. 

 When grafted on M, purpurea, the tree is comparatively dwarfed, by which it 

 is rendered very convenient for use as a shrub, or for growing in pots ; but, 

 when it is intended to form a tree, it should either be grafted on M. acuminata, 

 or raised from layers or seeds. It generally requires two years before the 

 plants can be separated from the parent stock. Some plants of this species 

 have been raised from seed ripened in Europe ; and we have no doubt that, 

 when this magnificent tree becomes better known and more generally in de- 

 mand, it will be raised in this way as extensively as M, acuminata and M. 

 glauca are at present. 



Statistics. An original imported plant, against a wall at Wormleybury, mea- 

 sured, in April, 1835, 27 ft. high, covered a space laterally of 24 ft., and had 

 on it, at that time, 5000 flowers 1 In Lee's Nursery there are several plants 

 above 20 ft. high, as standards, which flower magnificently every year. At 

 Harringay there is a tree of M. conspicua 25 ft, high, against a wall ; and in 

 the same garden there is one of M. c. Soulangea^a, 6 years inarched upon 

 a strong plant of M. cordata, which is 20 ft. 6 in. high, the branches extending 

 over a space 16 ft. in diameter, and the diameter of the trunk, at a foot from 

 the ground, being 1 ft. 1 in. In the Kensington Nursery there is a tree of the 

 same height {Jig. 35,), of which we had a drawing made in the fii'st week in 

 April, 1827, when it was covered with 1100 blossoms. There is a large 



