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Derivations. The French names imply Two-coloured Magnolia, in allusion to the colour of the flowers. The German name signifies Red Beaver-tree.

Engravings. London Botanical Magazine, pl. 390; and Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, i., figure 36.

Specific Characters. Deciduous. Leaves obovate, acute, reticulately veined; almost smooth. Flowers erect, of 3 sepals, and 6 obovate petals. Styles very short.-Don, Miller's Dict.

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HE Magnolia purpurea is a shrub, from six to twenty feet high; native of Japan, and introduced into England in 1790; propagated by seeds and layers in the gardens of China, Europe, and America; grows in open situations, in sandy peat, with loam, or in sand and clay, well-drained, with manure. Leaves large, of a very dark-green; flowers large, more or less purple without, and always white within; put forth in March, April or May, but do not fully expand till a day or two before they drop off. The bark, when bruised, has an aromatic odour.

Varieties. Although plants of this species may exhibit slight shades of difference, there cannot be truly considered but one or two distinct varieties, the M. p. gracilis, and the M. p. obovata-pumila, Casoretti. The chief difference between the former and the species, consists in being less hardy, rather more fastigiate in its form; leaves of a paler green, and somewhat narrower in shape; flowers longer and more slender, the points of the petals slightly turned back, and exteriorly of a dark-purple.

Genus LIRIODENDRON, Linn.

Magnoliaceæ.
Syst. Nat.

Polyandria Polygynia.
Syst. Lin.

Derivation. The name of this genus is derived from the Greek leirion, a lily, and dendron, a tree; from the resemblance of its flowers to the lily, but more nearly to the tulip.

Generic Characters. Carpels 1-2-seeded, disposed in spikes, indehiscent, deciduous, drawn out into a wing at the apex. Calyx of 3 deciduous sepals. Corolla of 6 petals, conniving into a bell-shaped flower.-Don, Miller's Dict.

IRIODENDRON is a genus comprising but one species, a tree of the first rank, native of North America, and extensively cultivated for ornament, in Europe, and America.

Among the Magnoliacea, there are probably other trees, adapted to the climate of the United States, that are worthy of cultivation, among which, are the Magnolia insignis, of Dr. Wallich, growing on the mountains of Nepal; also, the Michelia lanuginosa, excelsa, kisopa, and doltsopa, all of which are indigenous to the elevated regions of the Himalayas. The Michelia doltsopa is one of the finest trees of Nepal, yielding a fragrant wood, much used in that country in civil architecture. The Michelia excelsa, according to Dr. Wallich, produces a valuable timber, of a fine texture, at first greenish, but soon changing to a fine yellow.

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tree, Saddle-tree,

White Poplar, Yellow Poplar,

KENTUCKY.

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Tulip-tree, White-wood, Poplar, Old OTHER PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES.

Wife's Shirt-tree,

Derivations. The specific name is derived from the Latin, tulipa, a tulip, and fero, to bear, on account of the resemblance the flowers of this tree bear to those of tulips. It is called Poplar, from its general appearance to trees of the genus Populus; White-wood, and Yellow Poplar, from the colour of its timber: Canoe-wood, from the use to which it is applied by the native Indians; and Saddle-tree, from the form of its leaves. The French and German names are literal translations of Virginian Tulip-tree.

Engravings. Michaux, North American Sylva, pl. 61; Audubon, Birds of America, pl. xii.; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, v., pl. 13; and the figures below.

Specific Characters. Leaves smooth, truncate at the top; 4-lobed, resembling a saddle in shape. Flowers large, solitary, terminal, variegated with green, yellow, and orange colour; furnished with two deciduous bracteas under the flowers.-Don, Miller's Dict.

Description.

F all the deciduous
trees of North Amer-
ica, the Tulip-tree,
next to the sycamore,

(anus occidentalis,) attains the amplest dimensions; while the perfect straightness and uniform diameter of the trunk, the more regular distribution of its branches, and the greater richness of its foliage and flowers, give it a decided superiority over that tree, and entitle it to be considered one of the most magnificent productions of the temperate zones. It usually attains a height of sixty or eighty feet, with a diameter varying from eighteen inches to three feet; although, in favourable localities, it has been known to arrive at a height of one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty feet, with a diameter of more than seven feet. The

bark of the trunk, till it exceeds seven or eight inches in diameter, is smooth and even; but afterwards it begins to crack, and the depth of the furrows is in proportion to the size and age of the tree. In the development of its leaves it differs from most other trees. The leaf-buds, in general, are composed of scales closely

imbricated, which in spring are distended by the growth of the minute bundle of leaves that they enclose, till they finally fall off. The terminal bud of each shoot swells considerably before it gives birth to the leaf. It forms an oval envelope, containing the young leaf, which is produced to the light as soon as it has acquired sufficient strength to endure the influences of the atmosphere. Within this envelope is found another, which, after the first leaf is put forth, swells, bursts, and gives birth to a second. On young and vigorous trees, five or six leaves issue, successively, in this manner, from one bud. Till the leaf has acquired its growth, it retains the two scales which composed the envelope, and which are now called stipules. In spring, when the weather is warm and humid, the growth of the leaves is very rapid. They are six or eight inches broad, borne on long petioles, alternate, somewhat fleshy, smooth, and of a pleasing green colour. They are divided into three lobes, of which the middle one is horizontally notched at its summit, and the two lower ones rounded at the base. This conformation is peculiar to this tree, and thereby renders it distinguishable from all others. In Carolina and Georgia the flowers appear in April and May, and in the northern parts of the United States, in June and July. On detached trees, they are large, brilliant, very numerous, and varigated with different colours, among which, yellow predominates. They have an agreeable odour, and, surrounded by the luxuriant foliage, they produce a fine effect The fruit is composed of numerous thin, narrow scales, attached to a common axis, and forming a conical spike, two or three inches in length. Each spike or fruit contains sixty or seventy carpels, of which, never more than a third, and in some seasons, not more than seven or eight in the whole number are productive. It is also observed, that during ten years after it begins to yield fruit, nearly all the seeds, when sown, prove abortive; and that, on large trees, the seeds from the highest branches are the best.

Varieties. The Liriodendron tulipifera comprises three varieties, which may be regarded as distinct from the species.

1. L. T. OBTUSILOBA, Loudon. Blunt-leaved Tulip-tree, with blunter leaves than the original, but in no other respect different from it.

2. L. T. ACUTIFOLIA, Loudon. Acute-leaved Tulip-tree, with leaves smaller and more acutely cut than either the preceding variety or the species.

3. L. T. FLAVA, Loudon. Yellow-flowered Tulip-tree, very rare.

Geography and History. The southern extremity of Lake Champlain, according to Michaux, may be considered in its natural distribution, as the northern, and the river Connecticut as the eastern limit of this tree. It is only westerly of the Hudson, and southerly of the forty-third degree of latitude, that it is frequently met with, and fully developed. It is multiplied in the middle states, in the upper parts of Carolina and Georgia, and still more abundantly in the western states, particularly in Kentucky, where it displays its most powerful vegetation. Its comparative rareness in the maritime parts of the Carolinas and of Georgia, in the Floridas, and in lower Louisiana, is owing less to the heat of summer than to the nature of the soil, which, in some parts, is too dry, as in the pine-barrens, and in others too wet, as in the swamps which border the rivers. It is commonly found mingled with other trees, such as the hickories, the blackwalnut, and butternut, the Kentucky coffee-tree, (Gymnocladus canadensis,) and the wild cherry-tree; but it sometimes constitutes, alone, considerable tracts of the forest, as was observed by the elder Michaux, on the road from Beardstone to Louisville, in Kentucky. The artificial geography of this tree may be said to embrace the middle region of Europe, from Berlin and Warsaw, on the north, to the shores of the Mediterranean and Naples, on the south; Ireland on the west, and Crimea on the east. It is successfully cultivated along the maritime parts of the United States, from Newburyport, in Massachusetts, to St. Mary's, in Georgia.

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The period at which the tulip-tree was first introduced into England is uncertain. The honour is said to have been conferred on the Earl of Norfolk, as far back as 1663. It is certain that it was cultivated by Dr. Henry Compton, at Fulham, in 1688, at which time it was wholly unknown as a timber-tree. According to Miller, Mr. Darley, at Hoxton, and Mr. Fairchild, were the first who raised this tree from seeds; and from their nurseries it is probable that the numerous old trees which are spread all over Britain were procured. The oldest tree in England, estimated at over one hundred and fifty years of age, is at Fulham palace. It is about fifty feet high, and its trunk, at one foot from the ground, is three feet in diameter. The largest tree in Britain is in Somersetshire, at Hestercombe, which is one hundred feet in height, with a trunk three feet in diameter, and ripens seeds every year.

The first notice which we have of the tulip-tree on the continent, is in the "Catalogue of the Leyden Garden," published in 1731. From the number of these trees existing in France, the south of Germany, and Italy, there can be little doubt it spread as rapidly in those countries as it did in Britain. Public avenues are planted of it in Italy, and as far north as Strasburg and Mentz. It stands the open air at Vienna, and attains a large size there; but it will not endure the climate north of Warsaw, nor Moscow, without protection. In the grounds of the palace of Läcken, near Brussels, there is a tree which has a clear stem three feet in diameter, with a compact globular head. When Läcken belonged to France, the palace was occupied by the Empress Josephine, who brought her gardener from Paris; and the poor man, while he was gathering seeds from this tree, fell from it, and broke his neck. At Schwöbber, near Hanover, there is growing, in alluvial soil, near water, a tree more than one hundred and twenty years old, and eighty feet in height, with a trunk two feet in diameter, and an ambitus of thirty feet. In Italy, the tulip-tree attains a height of seventy or eighty feet, flowers freely, and ripens seeds every year.

The elder Michaux measured a tulip-tree, three and a half miles from Louisville, Kentucky, which was twenty-two feet and a half in circumference five feet from the ground, and from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty feet in height. In 1842, there was felled from the estate of Mr. John Lewis, in Llangollan, Kentucky, a tulip-tree, eight feet in diameter, near the ground, and five feet in diameter seventy-five feet above. The trunk was perfectly straight and sound, and was sawed into boards of common lengths.

At Green Point, Bushwick, near New York, on the estate of Mr. N. Bliss, there is a tulip-tree which has a circumference of twenty-one feet at three feet above the ground, and a height of seventy feet.

In 1807, there existed a tulip-tree, in Hamilton, Adams county, Pennsylvania, noticed by John Pearson, in a communication to Dr. James Mease, in the "Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for promoting Agriculture," for that year, which had a circumference of thirty-six feet, with a trunk thirty or forty feet to the forks, a large head, and, to all appearances, perfectly sound. In the same work, he mentions another tree as growing near the Virginia head of the river Roanoke, which was thirty-nine feet in circumference four feet from the ground, apparently sound, and about forty feet to the forks.

Soil and Situation. The Liriodendron tulipifera, in its natural habitat, delights only in deep, loamy, and extremely fertile soils, such as are found in the rich bottoms, lying along the rivers, and on the borders of the great swamps which are enclosed in the forests. Like almost all other trees, however, it will grow on soils of different qualities, and have its timber and other properties affected by the circumstances in which it is placed. But, according to M. Du Hamel, it neither thrives in France on a dry, arid, gravelly soil, nor on one with a subsoil of clay, or marl. The most rapid-growing young tulip-trees in England, it is said, were

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