47 
trees which can be successfully used for the decoration of New Eng¬ 
land gardens. 
Late Magnolias. All the North American species of Magnolias are 
hardy and can be easily grown in Massachusetts with the exception of 
Magnolia pyramidata, a rare and local shrub or small tree of southern 
Georgia, western Florida and southeastern Alabama, and the evergreen 
M. grandijlora. The first of the hardy Magnolias, M. Fraseri, opened 
its large pale yellow flowers as the leaves were unfolding. This was 
followed by M. acuminata and M. cordata which also flower as the 
leaves open; the Umbrella Tree, M. tripetala, was in flower early in 
June. The last of these trees to flower are Magnolia virginiana, bet¬ 
ter known as M. glauca, and M. macrophylla. 
Magnolia virginiana. In all North America there is not a more sat¬ 
isfactory shrub or small tree to plant in a garden or one that will give 
a larger return in beauty and fragrance. The leaves are dark green 
and very lustrous on the upper surface and silvery white on the lower 
surface. The flowers, which are smaller than those of the other Amer¬ 
ican Magnolias, and continue to open here from the middle of June 
until August, are cup-shaped, creamy white and emit a pungent frag¬ 
rance which in the evening fills the air for a long distance from the 
plant. At the north M. virginiana, which has bright green glabrous 
branchlets, rarely grows thirty feet in height but in the Gulf States 
the variety australis is a large tree occasionally nearly a hundred feet 
high with branchlets thickly covered with matted white hairs and leaves 
which remain bright and green during the winter and fall in spring. 
In spite of its beauty and value as a garden plant Magnolia virginiana 
appears to be little known or appreciated by American gardeners of the 
present generation due perhaps to the fact that it is difficult to find it 
at least in any quantity in American nurseries. A hybrid of this tree 
and the Umbrella Tree (M. tripetala), known as M. major or Thomp- 
soniana, has the general appearance of M. virginiana but the leaves 
are larger and the flowers are larger and whiter but equally fragrant. 
Magnolia macrophylla is the last of the Magnolias to flower in the 
Arboretum. A native of the southern States it is perfectly hardy in 
Massachusetts, where it has sometimes grown to a height of from 
twenty to thirty feet and formed a wide round-topped head of branches 
spreading at nearly right angles to the trunk. This Magnolia is dis¬ 
tinguished by the fact that it has the largest leaves and the largest 
flowers of any tree growing in any part of the world beyond the tropics. 
The leaves are silvery white on the lower surface and are from twenty 
to thirty inches in length and eight or nine inches in width. The ex¬ 
panded flowers are often a foot in diameter. Although perfectly hardy 
here Magnolia macrophylla is best planted in a position sheltered from 
the wind which often badly tears the large and delicate leaves. 
Robinia Hartwigii, one of the shrubby Locusts from the high Appa¬ 
lachian Mountains of North Carolina is now in flower in the collection 
of these plants on the right hand side of the Meadow Road. It is a 
tall vigorous shrub with leaves composed usually of nineteen short- 
