MAGNOLIA, the typical genus of the botanical family Mag noliaceae, named after Pierre Magnol (1638-1715), professor of medicine and botany at Montpellier. It contains about 21 species, distributed in Japan, China and the Himalayas, as well as in North America.
Magnolias are trees or shrubs with deciduous or rarely evergreen foliage. They bear conspicuous and often large, fragrant, white, rose or purple flowers. The sepals are three in number, the petals six to twelve, in two to f our series of three in each, the stamens and carpels being numerous. The fruit consists of a number of follicles which are borne on a more or less conical receptacle, and dehisce along the outer edge to allow the scarlet or brown seeds to escape; the seeds however remain suspended by a long slender thread (the funicle). Of the old-world species, the earliest in cultivation appears to have been M. Yulan (or M. conspicua) of China, of which the buds were preserved, as well as used medici nally and to season rice ; together with the greenhouse species, M. fuscata, it was transported to Europe in 1789, and thence to North America, and is now culti vated in the Middle States. There are many fine forms of M. con spicua, the best being Soulan geana, white tinted with purple, Lenne and stricta.
Of the Japanese magnolias, M.
Kobus and the purple-flowered M. obovata were introduced into England in 1709 and 1804 re spectively. M. pumila, the dwarf magnolia from the mountains of Amboyna, nearly evergreen, and bearing deliciously scented flowers, was introduced in 1786. The Indian species are three in number, M. globosa, allied to M. conspicua of Japan, M. spheno carpa, and, the most magnificent of all magnolias, M. Campbellii, which forms a conspicuous feature in the scenery and vegetation of Darjeeling. It is a large forest tree, abounding on the outer ranges of Sikkim, 8o to 150 ft. high, and from 6 to 12 ft. in girth.
The flowers are 6 to 1 o in. across, appearing before the leaves, and vary from white to a deep rose colour.
The first of the American species brought to Europe (in 1688 by John Banister) was the sweet bay, M. virginiana, a beautiful evergreen species about 15 ft. high with obtuse leathery leaves, blue-green above, silvery underneath, and globular flowers vary ing from creamy white to pale yellow with age. It is found in low situations near the sea from Massachusetts to Louisiana— more especially in New Jersey and the Carolinas. M. acuminata, the cucumber magnolia or cucumber tree, from the resemblance of the young fruits to small cucumbers, ranges from western New York and southern Ontario to Missouri and southward to North Carolina and Arkansas. The wood is yellow, and used
for bowls; the flowers, 3 to 4 in. across, are glaucous green tinted with yellow. It was introduced into England from Virginia about 1736. M. tripetala (or M. umbrella) is known as the "umbrella tree" from the arrangement of the leaves at the ends of the branches resembling somewhat that of the ribs of an um brella. The flowers, 5 to 8 in. across, are white and have a strong but not disagreeable scent. It was brought to England in 1752. M. Fraseri (or M. auriculata), the mountain magnolia, discovered by John Bartram in 1773, is a native of the western parts of the Carolinas and Georgia, extending through northern Alabama to Louisiana to western Florida and southern Alabama. It grows 3o to 5o ft. high, has leaves a foot or more long, heart shaped and bluntly auricled at the base, and fragrant pale yellow ish-white flowers, 3 to 4 in. across.
The most beautiful species of North America is M. grandiflora, the "laurel magnolia," native chiefly near the coast from North Carolina to Florida and westward to Arkansas and Texas. It was introduced into England in 1734. It grows a straight trunk, 2 ft. in diameter and upwards of 7o ft. high, bearing a profusion of large, powerfully lemon-scented creamy-white flowers. It is an evergreen tree, easily recognized by its glossy green oval oblong leaves with a rusty-brown under surface. The bigleaf magnolia, M. macrophylla, is a handsome deciduous tree, with smooth whit ish bark and very large oblong leaves, 1 ft. to 3 ft. long and 8 in. to 1 o in. broad. The sweet-scented, bell-shaped flowers, when open 8 in. to 1 o in. across, are white with a purple blotch at the base of the petals. It occurs in the southern Allegheny moun tains from North Carolina to Kentucky and southward to Florida and Louisiana. The yellow-flowered magnolia (M. cordata), native to restricted areas in the south-eastern States, was known only in cultivation for more than ioo years previously to its rediscovery in Georgia in 1913. It ranges in size from a large shrub to a fine tree 4o ft. or more high ; it bears heart-shaped leaves, woolly beneath, and yellow flowers lined with purple. (See TULIP-TREE. ) For a description of the principal species of magnolia under cultiva tion see L. H. Bailey, Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture (1917-23) and Manual of Cultivated Plants (1924). See also J. G. Millais, Mag nolias (1926).