Volume 4 — PLATE CCXXVI. MAGNOLIA PUMILA. Dwarf Magnolia.

CLASS XIII. ORDER VII.

POLYANDRIA POLYGYNIA. Many Chives. Many Pointals.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx. Perianthium triphyllum; foliolis ovatis, concavis, petaliformibus, deciduis.

Corolla. Petala novem, oblonga, concava, obtusa, basi angustiora.

Stamina. Filamenta numerosa, brevia, acuminata, compressa, receptaculo communi pistillorum infra germina inserta. Antheræ lineares, margini filamentorum utrinque adnatæ.

Pistilla. Germina numerosa, ovato-oblonga, bilocularia, receptaculum clavatum tegentia. Styli recurvi, contorti, brevissimi. Stigmata longitudinalia styli, villosa.

Pericarpium. Strobilus ovatus, tectus capsulis compressis, subrotundis, vix imbricatis, confertis, acutis, unilocularibus, bivalvibus, sessilibus, extrorsum dehiscentibus, persistentibus.

Semina bina seu solitaria, subrotunda, baccata, filo pendentia ex sinu singulæ squamæ strobili.

Empalement. Cup three-leaved; leaflets egg-shaped, concave, the form of the petals, falling off.

Blossom. Nine petals, oblong, concave, obtuse, narrower at the base.

Chives. Threads numerous, short, tapered, flattened, inserted below the seed-buds into the common receptacle of the Pointals. Tips linear, fixed on side to the margin of the threads.

Pointals. Seed-buds numerous, oblong-egg-shaped, two-celled, covering a club-shaped receptacle. Shafts turned backward, twisted, very short. Summits grow out of the shafts longitudinally, hairy.

Seed-vessel. Cone egg-shaped covered with capsules which are flattened, roundish, scarcely tiled, crowded, pointed, one-celled, two-valved, sitting close to the receptacle, splitting from the outside and remaining.

Seeds by twos or solitary, roundish, like berries hanging by a thread from the inside of each scale of the cone.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Magnolia foliis elipticis, undulatis, acuminatis, subglaucis; floribus nutantibus, albis; petalis carnosis, obovatis, concavis.

Magnolia with eliptic, waved leaves, tapered to a point, rather glaucous; flowers hanging down and white; petals thick, inversely egg-shaped and concave.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. One of the outer petals.

2. An inner petal.

3. The Chives and Pointals, on the receptacle.

4. The outside of one of the Chives.

5. The inside of the same.

6. The same, magnified.

7. The Pointals.

The Magnolia pumila, (as are, generally, all plants upon their first arrival from China,) has been hitherto treated as a hothouse plant; by which means, a continued foliage has been preserved: but, from every appearance of the plant, it is by nature deciduous, and, certainly hardy enough to be preserved in the greenhouse, if not to bear the exposure of the open ground. It grows to the height of about two feet, flowers in the hot-house about September or later, and is propagated by cuttings. The blossoms are very fragrant, but of short duration. To the late J. Slater, Esq. of Laytonstone, we owe this plant; which was one of that rich cargo brought home in the Carnatic, for him, by Captain Connor, in the year 1793. Our figure was taken at the Hammersmith nursery. The accession to this magnificent Genus has been considerable within a very few years: to the species formerly cultivated in Britain, viz. the grandiflora with its four varieties, the glauca and its two varieties, the acuminata and tripetala, are now added; the auriculata and maxima, from America; the pumila, fuscata and tomentosa or Yow-lang, from China; making in all, with the varieties, fifteen. The short acquaintance we have with the three last from China, or the knowledge of what part of that extensive country they are natives, does not enable us to decide, whether they will endure our winters; although we may on the two from America, as being hardy plants, or at least equally hardy with the grandiflora, being from the same part of America.