366 
DECIDUOUS TREES. 
THE MAGNOLIA. Magnolia. 
The magnolias are suggestive of all the voluptuous luxuriance 
of tropical vegetation. Rapid growth, immense leaves, great blos¬ 
soms powerfully odorous, all combine to create an impression of 
trees at home in a warmer zone than that of our northern States. 
All the large species are, however, natives of our country, and it is 
believed that with intelligent care the finest of them, excepting only 
the evergreen magnolia, (grandiflora) may be domesticated and 
grown to their full size as far north as the southern borders of the 
great lakes, where the altitude does not exceed seven hundred feet 
above the sea. 
The cucumber magnolia ( M. acuminata) grows to great size in 
forests at the west end of Lake Erie and in New Jersey, but entirely 
disappears in the forests a little further north. Latitude 42 0 may 
therefore be considered about its northern limit, and that of the 
magnolia family. 
Michaux speaks of the umbrella magnolia, M. tripetela , being 
found in the northern part of the State of New York; but our 
eminent botanist, Gray, in his official report of the botanical survey 
of that State discredits this statement, having failed to find it except 
near the Pennsylvania border. It is found in greatest abundance 
in the upper portions of the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Georgia. 
The great-leaved magnolia, M. macrophylla, was not found 
by Michaux except in North Carolina and Tennessee; the ever¬ 
green magnolia, M. grandifiora , always further south* while the 
swamp magnolia, M. glauca , is indigenous from Massachusetts to 
Louisians 
From these diversities of native habitats it may be safe to infer 
that most of the magnolia family may be domesticated on our 
lawns in the middle States, and in the northern States south of the 
great lakes, and probably in that part of Canada between Lake 
Ontario and the Detroit River. 
Some species, which have been introduced from China and 
Japan, are quite as hardy as the hardiest natives; and crosses be¬ 
tween these and our indigenous species have been made which are 
