Magnolia

“ You're trying to reconcile me with the girl you met under the magnolia that day, aren't you? A very silly, frightened girl who hung onto your hand like grim death and tried so very, very hard to believe the nice lie you told her about magnolias never being struck by lightning. You are, aren't you? ”

“ The Black Plumes. We journeyed throughout the whole night. The burnt woods were left behind, and having crossed a savanna, we rode for several hours through a forest of giant oaks, palms, and magnolias. I knew this by the fragrance of the magnolia blossoms, that, after the fetid atmosphere that we had been breathing, smelt sweet and refreshing. Just as day was breaking, we arrived at an opening in the woods, where our captors halted. ”

“ MAGNOLIA.—The Magnolia grandiflora is one of those shrubs the baneful emanations from which have procured for them an ill name. It is a native of Carolina, and has large white blossoms of powerful fragrance. When wafted to a distance upon the air, the scent is delicious, but when inhaled in the immediate neighbourhood of a group of Magnolias in flower, it becomes overpowering. The Indians carefully avoid sleeping under a Magnolia in blossom, and it is stated that so powerful is the perfume of the flower, that a single blossom placed in a bedroom suffices to cause death in one night. ”

“ A young woman, not content with delighting in the exquisite beauty of a magnolia bloom at a distance, came close to it and, coming close, touched it to make certain of its reality and, touching it, turned its fragile white petals to an ugly brown. ”

“ Other trees were Pyrus, Saurauja (both an erect and climbing species) , Olea, cherry, birch, alder, several maples, Hydrangea, one species of fig, holly, and several Araliaceous trees. Many species of Magnoliaceæ (including the genera Magnolia, Michelia, and Talauma) are found in Sikkim: Magnolia Campbellii, of 10,000 feet, is the most superb species known. In books on botanical geography, the magnolias are considered as most abounding in North America, east of the Rocky Mountains; but this is a great mistake, the Indian mountains and islands being the centre of this natural order. ”

“ Close outside her open windows a magpie in the magnolia tree was carolling as though he knew it was a special morning, and that he had a special message to deliver. The linen blinds were rolled tight up, and she could see him near one of the great creamy blossoms, each big enough for his bath; his black and white coat very spruce and smart, his head thrown back in utter enjoyment of his own song. ”

“ There were magnolias growing in the middle Appalachian region, and eastward to the present Atlantic coast, so far in the past that the time can be measured only by hundreds of thousands of years. Leaf prints in rocks, which were once mud flats, tell the story—though but a page here and there—of the magnolia’s ancient history, doubtless antedating by long periods the earliest appearance of man on earth. ”

“ The stone covers over our hopes and our memories. Our place knows us not. "Other people's children are playing on the grass," he broke out, in a hard voice, "where you and I used to play, Laura. And you see how the magnolia we planted has grown up since our time. ”

“ Out of the midst of these masses, the magnolia, raising its motionless cone, surmounted by large white buds, commands all the forest, where it has no other rival than the palm-tree, which gently waves, close by, its fans of verdure.
A multitude of animals, placed in these retreats by the hand of the Creator, spread about life and enchantment. From the extremities of the avenues may be seen bears, intoxicated with the grape, staggering upon the branches of the elm-trees; cariboos bathe in the lake; black-squirrels play among the thick foliage ”

“ Our place was called Magnolia Grove, and there were oleanders and yellow jasmine and Cherokee roses everywhere. This morning when I was so tired and felt that life was not worth the living, I fancied I was in my old home again, and I smelled the orange blossoms and saw the magnolias which bordered the avenue to our house, fifty or more, in full bloom, and Rex and I were playing under them. His uncle’s plantation joined ours, and when his mother died in Boston he came to live with her brother at Grassy Spring. ”

“ The umbrella tree (Magnolia tripetala) is found much more commonly in parks and gardens than our native swamp magnolia, and it seems a better representative of the genus for illustration. In the south it grows to be thirty or forty feet high. The bark is light gray in color and covered with small, blister-like excrescences. [Pg 155] The branches are stout, and green in color turning to brown. The buds are large and smooth and covered with a purplish, glaucous bloom, and the leaf-scars are clearly defined. This magnolia grows in deep, rich moist soil, and is nowhere common. ”

“ When the magnolia is in blossom it becomes a centre of delicious perfume and a colony of insect life. Its wood, although creamy white and excellent for cabinet-work and interior finish of houses, has not as yet found favour for these or other purposes. ”

“ But now we are at the mouth of Julington, and running across to a point of land on the other side. Our boat comes to anchor under a grove of magnolia-trees which lean over the water. They are not yet fully in blossom. One lily-white bud and one full-blown flower appear on a low branch overhanging the river, and are marked to be gathered when we return. We go up, and begin strolling along the shore. The magnolia-grove extends along the edge of the water for half a mile. Very few flowers are yet developed ”

“ She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen ... but she was a tree, not a woman.
"I'm sure she'll fit in after a while," Magnolia continued. "Perhaps she isn't well. She seems to guttate an awful lot. Do you suppose she's been overwatered?"
"That wasn't guttation," James said heavily. "It was tears. It means she's unhappy."
"Unhappy? Perhaps she won't fit in on this planet, in which case she should by all means go back to Earth. It's cruel and unfair to keep an intelligent—loosely speaking—life-form anywhere against her will, don't you think?"
"She'll be happy here," James vowed. ”

“ The wood is soft and light throughout the family, and the roots are fleshy. The sap is watery and the bark is bitter and aromatic.
The genus magnolia, named by Linnaeus in honor of Pierre Magnol, a French botanist, includes twenty species; twelve are native to eastern and southern Asia, two to Mexico, and six to eastern North America. They are of [Pg 102] peculiar interest to horticulturists and to the general public, because they have the largest flowers of any trees in cultivation. ”

“ The white-flowered magnolia (M. excelsa, Wall,) forms a predominant tree at 7000 to 8000 feet; and in 1848 it blossomed so profusely, that the forests on the broad flanks of Sinchul, and other mountains of that elevation, appeared as if sprinkled with snow. The purple-flowered kind again (M. Campbellii) hardly occurs below 8000 feet, and forms an immense, but very ugly, black-barked, sparingly branched tree, leafless in winter and also during the flowering season, when it puts forth from the ends of its branches great rose-purple cup-shaped flowers, whose fleshy petals strew the ground. ”

“ His mate soon joined him, as did a junco and two white-throated sparrows. The coloring of the magnolias is certainly gay. It includes blue-gray on the head, black on the back, canary-yellow beneath and on the rump, with white and dark bars, stripes, and spots enough on various parts of his body to make him as variegated as a harlequin.
While the magnolia warblers are members of the Canadian fauna, and seldom seen in the breeding season south of the White Mountains, 26 the bird which I next heard singing was even more interesting. ”

“ The Magnolia’s nest is composed outside entirely or almost entirely of spruce twigs or grass and is a ragged looking nest. The Baybreast builds a ragged nest that looks like that of the Magnolia but is much larger; for lining it uses fine roots or “moss-stems.” The Cape May’s nest is thick-walled, rather flat, with fine sticks, a little grass and characteristic dried green moss on the outside, feathers and usually light colored hairs neatly molded down inside. ”

“ Then the stately magnolias step free of their pods, their satin leaves falling from their alabaster shoulders—grandes dames these magnolias! And then there is no stopping it: everything is let loose; blossoms of peach, cherry, and pear; flowers of syringa—bloom of jasmine, honeysuckle, and Virginia creeper ”

“ This fine species of Magnolia is a native of China and Japan, was introduced to us by the late Mr. Slater of Laytonstone, to whom we are so much indebted for the greatest number of beautiful plants which have been imported from thence by any individual. It is a very free growing plant; will resist the severity of our winters, if planted in a warm situation, and is deciduous; but if kept in the conservatory, it retains its leaves the whole year, and flowers about June. It is propagated with ease by laying, or by cuttings, and thrives in peat earth, with a small mixture of loam. ”

“ This outlook was the most valuable asset the Magnolia possessed. If the parasol was held flat, with its back to the club-house, and no glimpse of the pretty face possible, it was, of course, unquestionable evidence to the member looking over the top of his cocktail that neither the hour or the place was propitious. ”

“ Magnolia is one of the best-known trees in the eastern part of the state. No other tree excels it in the combined beauty of leaves and flowers. Occurring naturally in rich moist soil on the borders of river swamps and nearby uplands in the Coastal Plain to the valley of the Brazos River, it has been widely cultivated for its ornamental value. In its natural habitat, it attains heights generally of 60 to 80 feet and trunk diameters up to 4 feet. The dense pyramidal head, or crown, is made up of numerous small spreading branches and branchlets. ”

“ These travadoes are frequent in summer, and have the quality of cooling the air. However, they often do a deal of damage. They are commonly attended by thunder and lightning; as soon as they are passed over, the sky is as clear as it was before.
May the 28th. The Magnolia glauca [215] was now in full bloom. Its flowers have a very pleasant fragrancy, which refreshes the travellers in the woods, especially towards the evening. The flowers of the wild vine afterwards supplied the place of those of the Magnolia. Several other flowers contribute likewise towards perfuming the ambient air. ”

“ Thus, with the wild yellow jasmine, which was here and there yet in flower; thus with the white Cherokee rose, which also grows wild, and in the greatest abundance; thus, with many other showy creeping plants, which on all sides twine around the boles of the trees, and many of which are said to be poisonous. (And many poisonous things, both of vegetable and animal life, are said to be in these wildernesses.) The magnolia is one of the most glorious of their trees, a tall green-leaved laurel, the white blossoms which are said to be the most beautiful flowers of the South ”

“ In due time the fair Magnolia made the amorous and formidable O'Flaherty happy. Single blessedness was not for her, and it is due to her to say, she turned out one of the best house-wives in Chapelizod, and made the fireworker account for every shilling of his pay and other revenues, and managed the commissariat and all other departments to admiration. She cured her lord very nearly of boozing, and altogether of duelling. One combat only he fought after his marriage, and it was rumoured that the blooming Magnolia actually chastised the gigantic delinquent with her own fair hand. ”

“ It grows 30 to 50 ft. high, has leaves a foot or more long, heart-shaped and bluntly auricled at the base, and fragrant pale yellowish-white flowers, 3 to 4 in. across. The most beautiful species of North America is M. grandiflora, the “laurel magnolia,” a native of the south-eastern States, and introduced into England in 1734. It grows a straight trunk, 2 ft. in diameter and upwards of 70 ft. ”

“ In the mountains it breeds here and there as far south as Maryland. In migration the magnolia shows no preference for special localities, but occurs in upland woods and lowland shrubbery where is promised a good harvest of insects. Like so many of its fellows, it finds rich hunting grounds in gray birches, and few large companies of warblers traverse gray birch woods without their complement of these beautiful and sprightly wood nymphs. ”

“ Our path now lay along the Straits of Magellan. The water almost washed our horses' feet as we rode along the narrow path, for the mainland falls almost vertically down to the waters edge, and is covered with a dense, impenetrable mass of trees and bushes—the latter chiefly of the magnolia species—and one is forced to keep on the meagre strip of stony beach, which in some places is hardly three feet broad. ”

“ But wherever there is shelter from the prevailing gales a narrow beach is found commonly. Above this grows a forest of trees, of which the greater number are the antarctic beech, and nearly all the rest are species of magnolia. Some grow to a diameter of two feet and a height of fifty. Nearly all of the trees are green the year round, and the magnolias are of a particularly bright and beautiful green.
As one climbs the mountains the trees are seen to be [Pg 51] of smaller and smaller sizes until at from 1000 to 1500 feet above the sea mosses take the place of trees. ”