border of some familiar wood in the neighborhood and notice 
how the trees seek the light and curve to the ground, the spaces 
between them filled up with the lower growing trees and shrubs 
which are starved for light in the middle of the wood and so are 
forced to the edges where they make the difference in texture 
and the variety in flower peculiar to our woodsides. Then, after 
becoming familiar with the native growth, we may begin by 
trying to imitate this in our own irregular planting. To many 
of us the coming of spring is associated with the early flowering 
Chinese Tree Magnolias, which bloom before their leaves are 
out and whose great white or pink flowers literally cover the 
tree before the wind carries them away and carpets the ground 
with their discarded petals. The white one, Magnolia conspicua, 
is perhaps more beautiful in the tone of its white than any other 
flower. It lacks the harshness of the papery quality of the white 
Shasta Daisy and the thickness of the curving petals and their 
beautiful shadows are a perpetual wonder; this Magnolia and 
its two fellows, Soulangeana and Lenriei, are entirely hardy as 
far north as Boston and in sheltered places even farther, but 
a late frost sometimes robs us of the flowers and although the 
plant is not injured, it is heart-breaking to go out some morning 
after a still, cold, starlit night to find our Magnolia blossoms 
limply hanging where last night they held themselves so proudly 
erect. 
The early Jesuit missionaries in China described the „ 
Magnolia in one of their volumes of annals saying they had ^ ARLY 
found records showing that the white flowers of Conspicua had Flowering 
been used to decorate the Imperial apartments in winter as long Magnolias 
ago as the T'ang dynasty in 627 A. D., and it is .from the Chinese 
that we get the common name of this tree, the Yulan. I suppose 
we all know — or have known and forgotten — that the name 
Magnolia was given to this genus of trees as a compliment to 
Dr. Pierre Magnol who, during the early eighteenth century 
was one of the many distinguished curators of the Botanic 
Garden at Montpellier, which until the beginning of the last 
century, shared with the Botanic Garden at Padua the 
distinction of having the most famous collection of plants in 
Europe. The pink variety, Soulangeana, is the result of a cross 
made about a hundred years ago in the garden' of H. Soulange- 
Bodin, and the red one, Magnolia Lennei, is probably the result 
of another cross between the same parents, Conspicua and 
Ooovata. This whole family was until comparatively recently, 
supposed to be very difficult to transplant, as it was found that 
if they were moved when the roots were dormant (as is almost 
universally done with other trees and shrubs) the results are 
disastrous. Now we move them just as the roots are starting 
into action. It was found that the dormant root when bruised 
would not heal, but the root full of sap withstood the shock of 
