438 
Magnolia  Gr  audi  flora. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Sept.,  1891. 
a  lovely  polished  green,  and  their  flowers  beautiful  and  gorgeous 
and  of  a  fragrance  rendering  the  atmosphere  rich  with  their  delicate 
odor.  In  autumn  the  large  green  fruit,  from  which  are  suspended 
a  number  of  delicate  scarlet  seeds  hanging  by  a  slender  silken  thread, 
again  renders  the  tree  beautiful  in  appearance,  and  the  contrast  with 
the  flowers,  as  sometimes  seen  on  the  same  tree,  is  quite  striking. 
This  species  has  its  spreading  branches  appear  on  the  trunk  at 
about  twenty  feet  from  the  ground.  Its  habitat  is  Florida,  Louisi- 
ana and  Texas,  although  it  is  found  as  far  north  as  Tennessee  and  as 
far  west  as  California.  It  thrives  best  in  sandy  soil  along  the  banks 
of  rivers  and  is  seldom  found  elsewhere.  It  does  not  bear  fruit  until 
it  is  about  five  years  old. 
The  leaves  are  always  alternate  oval-obovate  dark  green  above, 
mid  rib  prominent,  margin  entire,  under  surface  of  a  light  brown 
color  and  velvety  appearance ;  when  bruised,  they  have  a  very  dis- 
agreeable odor  and  a  bitter  and  acrid  and  pungent  taste,  which  prop- 
erties are  lost  when  the  leaf  becomes  dry.  By  placing  a  linen  cloth 
on  the  under  surface  of  the  leaf  and  marking  with  a  blunt  instru- 
ment an  indelible  ferruginous  mark  is  obtained. 
The  flowers  terminate  the  young  branches  and  appear  in  the 
spring,  the  buds  being  covered  with  two  deciduous  tough  hairy 
scales.  The  petals  are  large  oval  or  obovate,  abruptly  narrowed  at 
the  base,  coriaceous  and  of  a  brilliant  white  color,  but  becoming 
instantly  ferruginous  when  bruised.  Letters  can  easily  be  written  on 
them  with  a  sharp  instrument.  The  stamens  are  very  numerous 
and  much  shorter  than  corolla. 
The  fruit  is  about  three  to  four  inches  long,  two  to  three  inches 
wide,  conical,  composed  of  numerous  dehiscent  carpels  arranged  in 
a  sort  of  imbricated  spike ;  each  carpel  contains  one  or  two  seeds 
which  after  dehiscence  remain  suspended  by  slender  threads,  and 
which  are  the  size  of  a  pea  and  covered  with  scarlet  pulp,  the  centre 
being  a  hard  kernel,  white  externally  and  dark  colored  internally. 
The  taste  of  the  fleshy  portion  is  exceedingly  pungent,  acrid  and 
bitter,  and  when  a  ripe  seed  is  bruised  in  the  mouth  the  irritation 
often  extends  far  back  into  the  throat  causing  a  lasting  disagreeable 
taste,  followed  by  incessant  and  painful  coughing. 
The  seec;s  after  falling  from  the  fruit,  if  covered  over  with  loam, 
begin  to  grow  the  following  spring.  In  raising  them  for  ornamental 
purpose,  out  of  several  hundred  seeds  planted  only  a  small  number 
