Magnolia Officinalis Rehder & wilson This fine Magnolia is closely related when it is possible to compare living to, and has been confused with, the flowers, one wtth another, other Japanese M. obvata, better known in differences will be noted. The different gardens as M. hvpoleuca and naturally color of the branches is an infallible enough since the foliage of the two character by which to distmguish the species is identical. There are, however, two species at any season of the year. in bark and fruit many noticeable On the mountains of western Hupeh differences. The Japanese species has a and Szechuan up to elevations of 6000 purplish bark on shoots one year old. feet above sea level M. officinalis is the staminal and carpellary column is commonly cultivated, but I never met about two inches long, acutish at the with a spontaneous tree in the forests. summit, and the filaments are more This remark would apply to many than two thirds as long as the anthers. other Chinese trees of economic value The fruit is cylindric. stx to eight (Gleditsia officinalis and Eucommia inches long, about two inches wide, ulmoides, for example) but there is no somewhat pointed at the apex and reason to doubt that all of them are attenuate at the base. The ripe carpels truly natives of the region where they have long, usually slightly recurved are also found cultivated. Trees valued beaks, and rather thin walls. Doubtless for the medicinal value of their bark Rowers of M. officinalis (left) and M. fraseri (right) opened simulraneously on adjacent trees in Phil Seitner s garden. have little hope of surviving the under the mistaken idea that this depredations of countless generations species was the same as that of Japan, of Chinese. It is only as cultivated only a dozen plants were saved. At my plants that they have a chance to instigation so that the Chinese form survive, although probably in some could be preserved in cultivation, Kew remote district there yet remain obtained one or two of these plants. genuinely wild specimens. At Kuling, Later Mr. J.C. Williams and a few and in other places as far east as the other enthusiasts purchased the coastal province of Chekiang, a variety remainder. (biloba) is frequently seen about It was fortunate that these housesA The type itself has also been precautions were taken since, although gathered in Chekiang province. It in 1908 I sent seeds (¹652A)' to the would appear, then, that M. offrcinalis Arnold Arboretum, no other plants is spread from the coast westward to were raised. At Caerhays Castle this the confines of the Chino-Thibetan plant flowered for the first time in borderland. cultivation and is now a handsome This new Magnolia does not grow to tree some feet high. 4 In another so large a size as its Japanese relative, place I have pointed out that the floras through the flowers and foliage are of China and Japan, though closely equally handsome. The Chinese related, are specifically distinct, yet the designate this species the "Hou-p'o" old belief of their identity still persists. tree, and its bark and flower-buds ln my early collecting days I suffered constitute a valued drug which is from this bogey, but less perhaps than exported in quantity from central and others due largely to my contumacious western China to all parts of the attitude. Looking back I only wish I Empire. It is for its bark and flower- had been even more rebellious towards buds that the tree is cultivated. The accepted botanical authority. removal of' the bark causes the death of the tree and this would account for its 6. Spongberg offers further discussion of disappearance from the forests. The the variety biloba. Newsletter Amer. Mag. 3-7. bark when boiled yields an extract Soc. 14 ( I): 1978. 7. Spongberg indicates that Wilson 652 is which is taken internally as a cure for the type collection; however, no lectotype coughs, colds and as a tonic and has been chosen from flowering and stimulant during the convalescence. A fruiting collections. similar extract obtained from the flower-buds, which are called "Yu-p'o" is esteemed as a medicine for women. L'Abbe David would appear to have MAGNOLIAS been the discoverer of this new AND OTHER PLANTS Magnolia, since his fragmentary Send 504 lor our catalog specimen collected in Mupin in 1869 and doubtfully named Talauma by Franchet apparently is this plant. It LittLe Lake was collected in Hupeh first by A. Henry about l888. I met with it in During flower in Changyang district in May rg l900, and in the autumn collected seeds 15101 Ma«Donald Road Auburn, (¹877)which I forwarded, packed in California 95603 earth, to Messrs. Veitch. They (916) 269-1894 vegetated freely but, unfortunately, 14 .