The flower of this magnolia is surrounded by an umbrella-like whorl of leaves. The whole tree, indeed, suggests an umbrella, so closely thatched is its dome with the glossy leaves. The twigs have a peculiar habit of striking out at right angles from an erect branch, then turning up into a position parallel with the parent branch. This feature, combined with the inevitable forking of each twig that bears a flower, gives the branches angularity and tends to destroy the symmetry of the dome.
The three recurved sepals are the distinctive feature of the flower. The whole tree is smooth, except when its young shoots unfold. The silky hairs are soon shed. Altogether, this is one of the trimmest handsomest of our native magnolias. It attains large size in the Arnold Arboretum, proving it hardy in southern New England.
Magnolia, Mountain Magnolia (Magnolia Fraseri, Walt.)—Tree 3o to 4o feet high, with small, broad crown above slender, often leaning trunk. Branches stout, angular, erect. Bark thin, brown, smooth, with warty patches. Wood brownish yellow, weak, soft. Buds smooth, purplish; terminal r to 2 inches long; axillary very small. Leaves obovate, acute, with ear-shaped lobes at base, io to 12 inches long, bright green, smooth, whorled near end of branchlet. Flowers creamy white,
fragrant, spreading, 8 to to inches across, petals narrowed at base. Fruit oblong, 4 to 5 inches long, bright rose at maturity; carpels with long horny tips, seeds inch long. Preferred habitat, well-drained soil along mountain streams. Distribution, valleys of Appalachian Mountains from Virginia and Tennessee to Georgia, Alabama and northern Mississippi; abundant in South Carolina along headwaters of the Savannah River. Uses: Cultivated in gardens of Eastern States and in Europe. Hardy to New England.
The eared leaves of this tree and the prominent horns that decorate its brilliant seed cones readily distinguish it from the preceding species, which it resembles in habit and in the whorled leaf arrangement. The two are alike in their adaptability to culture far outside of their natural range. Each has proved suc cessful as a hardy stock upon which to graft half-hardy exotic varieties. Planted in the Northern States, these trees seem to hold their own even with M. acusninata. A peculiarity of the mountain magnolia, umbrella tree and large-leaved cucumber tree is that the foliage of all three falls without any perceptible change of colour. The leaves are pretty much frayed and blemished before falling.