iso M A G N 
In 16S9, Magnol publiftied an octavo volume, entitled 
Prodromtis Hiftoria Gcneralis Plantarum, in which he under¬ 
took a fcheme of natural arrangement. Haller fays the 
method is that of Ray, deduced from all the parts of a 
plant; and that the vegetable kingdom is difpcfed in 76 
families, fubdivided into genera. The author confiders 
the flowers and fruits as of primary importance, but has 
recourfe alfo to the roots and habit occafionally. Haller 
indicates a few miftakes. If they are the word he could 
clifcover, the work muft rank very high, even at the pre¬ 
fect day. In 1697 appeared the Hurtus Regius Monfpelienjis, 
an o&avo volume of 209 pages, with 2.1 elegant plates. 
This is an alphabetical catalogue of the garden, in which 
feveral new or rare f'pecies are defcribed as well as figured. 
In their generic diftribution the author conforms to Tour- 
nefort principally, and his preface ffiows how much he 
had contemplated this (object and its difficulties. When 
we confider that Magnol had had the care of the garden 
only three years previous to the publication of this rich 
catalogue, and that he found the collection in a very poor 
flate, the book is an honourable monument of his induf- 
try as well as knowledge. In 1708, Magnol was admitted 
a member of the Academie des Sciences of Paris, in the 
place of his diftinguifhed friend Tournefort, who died 
that year. He continued to profecute his favourite ftu- 
dies, having prepared forne obfervations upon the Pinax 
of Cafpar Bauhin, which however he did not live to com¬ 
plete. He communicated to the Academy fome objec¬ 
tions to the opinion of a circulating fap in vegetables, and 
fome remarks on the importance of their medulla , or pith. 
He alfo gave an account of an eafy method of tinging the 
flowers of the tuberofe with a folution of fome kind of 
lake. 
Magnol died in 1715, at the age of 77. He left a fon 
named Anthony, who was profefl’or of phyfic at Mont¬ 
pellier, but not of botany. To this fon we are indebted 
for the publication of the Novus Ckaratter Plantarum, on 
which the fame of Magnol as a fyflematic botanift chiefly 
refts. This pofthumous work appeared in 1720, making 
a quarto volume of 341 pages. The fyftetn therein 
taught is mftch celebrated by Linnaeus, who gives a ge¬ 
neral view of it, expreffing his wonder that fo new and 
lingular a fyftem had not made more profelytes. It pro- 
fefles to be founded on the calyx ; but that term is taken 
in a very wide, and at this time of day unauthorifed, 
fenfe ; for it comprehends the pericarp as well as perianth, 
the former being denominated the internal calyx, the lat¬ 
ter the external. See the article Botany, vol. iii. p. 296. 
MAGNO'LIA,/. [fo named by Plumier, in honour of 
the lubjeft of the preceding article.] Laurel-leaved 
Tulip-tree ; in botany, a genus of the clafs polyandria, 
order polygynia, natural order of coadunatae, (magnolias, 
JuJf.) The generic characters are—Calyx: perianth three¬ 
leaved ; leaflets ovate, concave, petal-(haped, deciduous. 
Corolla : petals none, oblong, concave, blunt, narrower at 
the bafe. Stamina: filaments numerous, ffiort, acumi¬ 
nate, comprefled, inferted into the common receptacle of 
the pi (tils below the germs. Antheras linear, faftened on 
each fide to the margin of the filaments. PiftiHum : 
germs numerous, ovate-oblong, two-celled, covering a 
club-fiiaped receptacle ; ftyles recurved, contorted, very 
ffiort; liigmas longitudinal of the ftyle, villofe. Peri- 
carpium : ftrobile ovate, covered with capfules, which are 
comprefled, roundiffi, fcarcely imbricate, cluflered, acute, 
one-celled, two-valved, fellile, opening outwards, perma¬ 
nent. Seeds : two or one, roundiffi, berried, hanging by 
a thread from the finus of each fcale of the ftrobile. The 
germs are two-celled and two-feeded ; the ripe capfules 
one-celled, two-valved. Gartner.—EJfendal CharaEler. Ca¬ 
lyx three-leaved ; petals nine ; capfule one-celled, two- 
valved ; feeds berried, pendulous. 
Species. 1. Magnolia grandiflora, or laurel-leaved tu¬ 
lip-tree: leaves perennial,oblong ; tomentofe underneath ; 
petals obovaae. Of this there are three varieties : ct. Com¬ 
mon laurel-leaved magnolia: leaves oblong-elliptic, co- 
O L I A. 
riaceous; flowers fomevvhat contracted. 0 . Broad laurel- 
leaved magnolia: leaves obovate-oblong, flowers expanded, 
y. Long laurel-leaved magnolia : leaves oblong-lanceolate, 
bent at the tip ; flowers fomewhat contracted. Thefeare 
trees, chiefly natives of North America, none of Europe. 
The leaves are large, and the flowers are axillary, very large, 
and odorous. The great laurel-leaved magnolia, or tulip- 
tree, in the fouthern provinces of North America, riles 
with a ftraight trunk of two feet or more in diameter to 
the height of feventy, eighty, or even a hundred, feet, di¬ 
viding into many fpreading branches, that form a large 
regular conical head. The leaves are nine or ten inches 
long, and three inches broad in the middle, of a thick 
conliftence, refembling thofe of the common laurel, but 
much larger, entire, but a little waved on their edges, of 
a lucid green on the upper furface, and fometimes ruffet- 
coloured underneath ; they are fellile, placed without or¬ 
der on every fide the branches,and continuegreen through¬ 
out the year, falling off only as the branches extend, and 
new leaves are produced. The flowers are produced at 
the ends of the branches ; they are very large, and com- 
pofed of eight or ten petals, narrow at their bafe, but 
broad rounded and a little waved at their extremities ; 
they fpread open very wide, in the manner of a full¬ 
blown rofe ; they are from fix to nine inches in diameter, 
are of a pure white colour, and of a moll delicious fra¬ 
grance. The fruit iscompofed of many capfules difpofed 
in the form of a ftrobile ; they are triangular, comprefled, 
wedge-fliaped, coriaceous, one-celled, the outer fide thick¬ 
ened, cork)', pubefeent; they gape open, and each cell is 
lined with its own papery membrane., and is accompanied 
at its lower and anterior margin with the ftyle converted 
into a woody briftle. Common receptacle long, roundiffi, 
covered all over with the capfules placed vertically. Pro¬ 
per receptacle a filiform umbilical chord, becoming finally 
very long, fpringing from the inner angle of the capfule. 
Seeds regularly two to each capfule, but fometimes only 
one, parabolical, plano-convex or obfoletely angular, ber¬ 
ried, fcarlet. The fummers in England are not warm 
enough to bring the fruit to perfection, though fome-oid 
plants often form ftrobiles. This tree in its native coun¬ 
try begins to produce flowers in May, and continues a 
long time in flower, fo that the woods are perfumed with 
their odour the greateft part of the furnmer; but in Eng¬ 
land it feldom begins to flower til! the middle or end of 
June, and does not continue long in beauty. This fine 
tree is a native of Florida and Carolina, and, in common 
with many of the trees and plants of that country, is im¬ 
patient of cold here, and difficult to keep in perfection, 
either abroad or houfed. If it could be fo far naturalized 
as to endure the cold of our fevere winters in the open 
air, it would be one of the greateft ornaments to our plan¬ 
tations. The time when it fuffers moft is by the early 
frofts in autumn, the extremities of the Ihoots being then 
tender. In the Kew Catalogue, it is faid, from Catefby, 
that the laurel-leaved magnolia was cultivated before 
1737, by fir John Colliton. Mr. Miller relates that there 
were a great many young plants in England before the 
year 1739 5 that a great part of thefe were deftroyed by 
that fevere winter; and that, fince, few good feeds have 
been fent to England, fo that for many years after few of 
the plants were to be fold in the nurferies. He had how- 
ever a pretty large plant, which, having been apparently 
killed by the fevere winter of 1739-40, he cut down to 
the ground after midfummer, and the root ffiot up again 
the year after. The annexed Plate is copied from Catelby. 
2. Magnolia Plumierij Plunder's or Weft-Indian mag¬ 
nolia : leaves perennial, ovate, roundiffi, frnooth on both 
fides. Native of the iflands of St. Lucia, Martinico, and 
Guadaloupe. Mr. Miller remarks, that, if Plumier’s figure 
of the feCtion of his fruit be exadf, his muft be a different 
genus from this ; the feeds being reprefented within the 
fruit, lying round a column. 
3. Magnolia glauca, or fwamp-magnolia ; confifting of 
two varieties; a. M. glauca latifolia, or deciduous fwamp- 
magnolia j, 
