The Garden Magazine, March, 1920 
5 ? 
covered and introduced in 1908. It is growing in France and 
England but has not proved hardy in the Arnold Arboretum. 
The second species (M. salicifolia) is Japanese and is distri- 
buted on the mountains from Kyushu to northern Hondo. It 
was introduced into this country by Professor Sargent in 1892. 
It is a slender tree with small cup-shaped white flowers and 
narrow thin leaves. The shoots when bruised emit a strong 
smell of camphor; in fact when I first found it wild I took it for 
some member of the Camphor family. Somehow this plant has 
not taken kindly to cultivation though it has flowered in the 
arboretum of Mr. T. E. Proctor, Topsfield, Mass.,andin the Cot- 
tage Gardens Nursery, on Long Island. It is essentially a 
woodland plant, delighting in moist slopes and quite likely if 
we could get it properly established all would be well. 
Other Asiatic Kinds 
F INALLY there are the Asiatic Magnolias which open 
their flowers after the leaves unfold in the manner of 
the American species. Of these, three only are in cultivation in 
this country — and none is as well known as it ought to be. The 
most striking is M. obovata, more generally known as M. 
hvpoleuca, which in general appearance resembles the American 
M. tripetala. It is widely distributed in forests of Japan from 
the south to the north and is known as the Honoki. At its 
best it ds a tree 70 ft. tall and 7 ft. in girth with smooth gray 
bark and a shapely crown of stout branches. The leaves are 
from a foot to a foot and a half long by half this in width at 
the broadest part, which is above the middle, and are deep 
green above and silvery beneath. Its flowers are bowl shaped, 
6 to 8 inches across, milk-white fading to apricot with a ring 
of red-purple anthers, and are heavily fragrant. It has very 
large cone-like fruits which are bright scarlet when ripe and very 
conspicuous. 
This Magnolia is an important timber tree in the forests of 
Hokkaido, and with M. kobus var. borealis reaches the most 
northern geographical limit of the family. Like a number of 
other valuable plants it was introduced first to this country 
and afterward to Europe where it flowered for the first time 
in the garden of Mr. B. E. C. Chambers at Grayswood Hill, 
Haslemere, Surrey, 
in June 1905. 
Closely related to 
the Honoki is a 
Chinese species (M. 
officinalis) which is 
growing in England 
from seeds 1 sent 
there in 1900, but 
has not proved 
hardy in the Arnold 
Arboretum. In 
China, the bark and 
dried flowers of this 
Magnolia are a 
highly valued tonic 
medicine. 
A Magnolia whose 
beauty fascinated 
me in the forests of 
Korea is M. parvi- 
flora, which also 
grows in south Ja- 
pan. Its snow- 
white flowers are 
egg-shaped in bud 
and bowl - shaped 
with infolded pet- 
als when expanded, and have scarlet stamens and long stalks. 
The specific name is misleading for the flowers are from four to 
five inches across. It is a large bush often 20 feet high, of strag- 
gling habit, with ovate leaves from 3 to 6 inches long by 2 to 4 
inches wide, and is remarkably floriferous. It delights in rocky, 
granite country and is especially happy by the side of forest 
streams. On the Diamond Mts. in northeast Korea where the 
winter temperature is more severe than in Massachusetts this 
lovely Magnolia is a feature, and I have hopes of this Korean 
form being a better garden plant than the Japanese one now in 
cultivation. There is also in Japan a form (plena) with semi- 
double flowers. Growing and blossoming in European gar- 
dens but not hardy here is Magnolia Wilsonii, which is closely 
akin to the above. This I discovered and introduced in 1904 
and again in 1908, together with several other Magnolias. 
Of mysterious origin is the Japanese M. Watsonii which 
was introduced to Europe by the Yokohama Nursery Com- 
pany at the Paris Exhibition in 1889. I he plant was pur- 
chased and taken to Kew Gardens where it flowered the 
following year. It has not been discovered in a wild state 
and 1 am inclined to regard it as a hybrid between M. obovata 
and M. parviflora — but against this view must be stated 
the fact that it is much less hardy than either of the above. 
Very likely it will some day be found wild in the island of 
Shikoku or some other part of south Japan. Its leaves are. 
rather larger and thicker in texture than those of M. parvi- 
flora, its open cup-shaped, white flowers with blood-red 
stamens have a strong spicy odor and are short stalked and 
about 6 inches across. 
These are all the Magnolias found in gardens of the cool 
temperate parts of this country, but in the south M. coco, 
better known as M. pumila is here and there cultivated. 
This is a shrubby south China species with elliptic, wavy, 
rather leathery, glaucous leaves and sweetly fragrant, nodding 
egg-shaped flowers. It was introduced to England as long 
ago as 1786 by Lady Amelia Hume who had a garden at 
Wormley Bury, Herfordshire. 
Of the evergreen Asiatic Magnolias only one species calls 
for mention here That is M. Delavavi which has leaves larger 
than any evergreen 
hardy in temperate 
lands. It should be 
an excellent tree for 
the Pacific Slope 
andtheSouth. The 
flowers are fragrant , 
white, cup -shaped 
and from 6 to 8 
inches across; these 
are followed by 
large red cone-like 
fruits. It is a na- 
tive of Yunnan, 
southwest China, 
where it is a broad, 
much -branched 
tree full 30 ft. tall. 
I had the pleasure 
of introducing it to 
English gardens by 
means of seeds sent 
in the late autumn 
of 1899. Plants 
raised from these 
seeds flowered for 
the first time in Kew 
Gardens in 1908. 
HALL’S MAGNOLIA IN A MASSACHUSETTS GARDEN 
Most useful is this starry or Hall’s Magnolia (M. stellata). It makes 
a low bush, and begins to flower when only a foot or so high 
