Magnificent Magnolias

Long leaved cucumber tree (Magnolia auriculata)

"This species of Magnolia, equally remarkable with the preceding for the beauty of its foliage and for the size of its flowers, which are of an agreeable odor, is found only in a small tract far retired in the country, and has but lately become known to botanists. […] I have nowhere found it as abundant as on the steepest part of the lofty mountains of North Carolina, particularly those which are called by the inhabitants Great Father Mountains, Black and Iron Mountains."

This illustration and the description are from volume two of "The North American sylva ; or, A description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia ... to which is added a description of the most useful of the European forest trees," by François André Michaux, 1770-1855 (Published by D. Rice and A. N. Hart, 1859-1865)