DECIDUOUS TREES. 
369 
The finest specimens known of this species reach one hundred 
feet in height; but sixty feet is about the usual altitude. The 
leaves vary from nine to twelve inches in length, and from three to 
four or more inches in breadth ; they are always smooth and shining, 
and entire on the edges. The flowers appear in May, and the tree 
keeps on blooming through the- season. They are white, produced 
on the summit of the last year’s shoots, and are from six to eight 
inches in diameter. Their odor is powerfully fragrant, and when 
too near or too abundant oppressively so. 
The evergreen magnolia flourishes in the botanical gardens and 
parks of south France and Italy, where it has been introduced; but 
not with the luxuriance that marks its growth on the bottom lands 
of the Gulf States. In England it is cultivated on walls and in 
hot-houses. It is decidedly a tender tree, and is not likely to 
repay any attempts to domesticate it north of Washington. 
The Cucumber Magnolia, M. acuminata , is a native of most 
of the States of our Union, and grows in western forests to a 
majestic size. Its trunk is straight, and the branches symmetrically 
disposed around the main stem. Growing in open ground, it as¬ 
sumes an ovate-conical form. The leaves are oval-acuminate, 
from six to ten inches long, and four to seven broad, and of a 
bluish green color. They drop early, turning to a dirty yellow 
before they fall. The foliage is massy and abundant in soils which 
are deep, warm, and moist; but in poor or dry ground the 
branches are not well covered, the leaves have a pale, sickly green 
color, and the whole aspect of the tree is coarse, and every wav 
inferior in massiveness and color of foliage to the maples, hick¬ 
ories, and horse-chestnuts. The flowers, which have many petals, 
have the form, and more than double the size of a common tulip, 
and appear in June; are of a pale-yellow color, varying to white 
and bluish-white, and slightly fragrant. The fruit is about three 
inches long, resembling when unripe a green cucumber,—hence the 
name of the tree,—rose-colored, and ornamental when ripe. 
Michaux observes that the situations peculiarly adapted to its 
growth are the declivities of mountains, narrow valleys, and the 
banks of torrents, where the atmosphere is constantly moist, and 
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