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Our Magnificent Magnolia by Kathy Root Pitts In November 1900, the Magnolia grandiflora was voted Mississippi ?s state flower by a solid majority of school children. Other flowers judged in the running were the cotton blossom and the cape jasmine. In 1952, our state legislature made this sweet-smelling nomination official. The legislature had, after all, already named the magnolia Mississippi ?s state tree in 1938, in response to a movement of the Forestry Director. The magnolia was competing then with the dogwood, oak, and pine. The genus was named after Pierre Magnol, a French botanist, but the existence of the plant predates its name, having weathered ice ages, continental drifts, and the formation of mountains. The magnolia has its roots in ancient times, having been around even before there were pollinating bees. These hardy flora were built sturdy to accommodate crawling beetles. Fossil evidence of plants in the Magnoliaceae Family have been discovered dating back 95 million years.  The magnolia has been a long resident of China, and is first documented there for medicinal use in 1083. In 1570, the Spanish doctor Francisco Hernandez described in drawings the magnolias that he found in Mexico. The magnolia was introduced to Europe in the Seventeenth Century by a plant-collecting missionary, John Bannister, who sent a Sweetbay Magnolia to the Bishop of London from Virginia.  The Magnolia is a diverse genus, and contains some 210 species. There is debate among botanists about how to group and divide the genus of these many related varieties of ancient plant. Mississippi is home to several varieties of magnolia, including the Cucumber Tree (Magnolia acuminata), Sweetbay (Magnolia virginiana), Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora), Ashe Magnolia (Magnolia ashei), Yulan Magnolia or Lilytree (Magnolia denudata), Fraser Magnolia (Magnolia fraseri), Lily Magnolia (Magnolia liliiflora), Bigleaf Magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla) named obviously for its really big leaves, Japanese Magnolia (Magnolia soulangiana) ?pictured at right, Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata), and the Umbrella Tree (Magnolia tripetala). As with the ginkgo, Mississippi seems to be the place to find ancient plants, and the Magnolia is well represented in that category.