The tribe Magnolieæ is distinguished by the fruit consisting of a number of carpels arranged so as to form a cone. There are six genera in this order, the most remarkable of which are Magnolia, Liriodendron, Talauma, and Michelia, the last genus consisting of stove trees, with very fragrant flowers, which are generally of a pale yellow, and only one species of which, M. Champaca, has been introduced.
Of these genera Magnolia is undoubtedly the best known; as nearly all the species are common in British gardens. This genus is divided into two sections, one containing the American Magnolias, and the other those from Asia, which are principally from China and Japan.
Fig. 104.—Flower of Magnolia conspicua opened to show the stamens and pistil.
The latter may be illustrated by Magnolia conspicua, sometimes called M. Yulan. The flower-buds are inclosed in a brown hairy case formed of two short bracts which become loose at the base, and are pushed off by the expanding flower. The flower itself (see fig. 104) is cup -shaped, and it is divided into six white fleshy
Fig. 105.—The flower-bud of the Evergreen Magnolia. petals. The calyx consists of three sepals,—which fall off soon after the petals expand. In the centre of the flower is the receptacle, drawn up into a fleshy cone, with a great number of carpels attached to it, each of which has one cell containing two ovules, and a curved stigma. Around this cone grow the stamens, with very long anthers standing up like palisades, and very short thick filaments. The fruit is oval, with the ovaries somewhat distant from each other. The flowers appear before the leaves. The other Asiatic species are M. gracilis or Kobus, M. discolor, obovata, or purpurea, and M. fuscata; the former two forming handsome shrubs in the open ground, and having cup-shaped flowers which are white within and purplish on the outside, and the latter being a greenhouse plant, with brown very fragrant flowers.
The American species of Magnolia differ in having their flower- buds enveloped in one long spathe-like bract, as shown in fig. 105. The ovaries grow close together; and, when ripe, the carpels, which look like the scales of a fir-cone (see fig. 106), burst by a slit down the back; and the seeds, which are covered with a red juicy pulp, burst out, and hang down by a long white thread, which in the course of a few days withers away. The principal species of American Magnolias are the evergreen Magnolia, or Big Laurel (M. grandiflora); the Umbrella Tree (M.
