THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL 
OF 
PHARMACY. 
JULY, 1843. 
ART. X. — OBSERVATIONS ON THE MAGNOLIA GRA.NDI- 
FLORA. By Stephen Procter, M. D. 
{An Inaugural Essay presented to the Jefferson Medical College.) 
The subject of the following essay is one that calls forth 
the deepest admiration of the botanist, as well as the ordinary 
observer, for the " majesty of its form, the magnificence of 
its foliage, and the beauty of its flowers." Although others 
can be found that exceed it in size, yet, as Michaux justly re- 
marks, the Big Laurel is the most remarkable of all the trees 
of North America, east of the Mississippi. Its large shining 
deep green leaves form a verdant bed, worthy as a place of 
repose for its large and beautifully formed flowers, whose 
agreeable odor sent forth on the breeze seems to invite the 
admiration of the passer by. 
Magnolia grandi flora. 
Generic characters. — Calyx, three-leaved. Petals, six to 
nine. Capsules, two-valved, one-seeded, imbricated in a 
cone. Seeds, pendulous, arillate. — (NuttalPs Genera, p.18.) 
Specific characters. — Leaves perennial, oval, lanceolate > 
thick, coriaceous, ferruginous underneath ; petals obovate, 
abruptly contracted into a claw. — (Michaux, Flor. Boreal. 
Jimer. 
Elliot states that this magnificent tree rises sometimes 
sixty, se-venty, or eighty feet in height, with a naked, smooth 
columnar stem ; and the head, when not injured by accident, 
vol. vni. — NO. II. 12 
