380 Class XXIII. Order I. 



439. NYSSA. 



NYSSA VILLOSA. JWich. Tupelo Tree. Swamp Hornbeam. 

 Leaves oval, entire, the petiole, middle nerve, and 

 margin villous ; fertile stalks about three flowered ; 

 nut short-obovate, obtusely striate. Mich. 



This tree grows in swamps, and is frequently of a pyramidal 

 form, with horizontal branches. The leaves are oval, entire, 

 acute, tough and firm, paler on the under side, slightly pubescent 

 on the margin and petiole, two or three inches in length. The 

 flowers are small, obscure, of a green colour, collected on the 

 end of a long peduncle. Each fertile peduncle produces two or 

 three small, oblong drupes, of a deep blue colour, each contain- 

 ing an exceedingly hard, striated stone. 



The wood of this tree is white, and moderately hard. Its 

 fibres are closely interwoven, so as to render it extremely tough 

 and difficult to split. In Massachusetts it is generally called 

 Hornbeam, a name properly belonging to the genus Carpinus. 



440. FRAX1NUS 



FRAXINUS AMERICANA. Micli.f. White. Jlsh. 



Leafets elliptic, acuminate, slightly toothed, petioled, 

 glaucous underneath. 



Sijn. FRAXINUS DISCOLOR. Mu/il. 



This very valuable tree grows to the height of seventy or 

 eighty feet. Its branches are opposite, and covered with bark 

 of a very light colour. Leaves pinnate, consisting of about 

 seven oval, acuminated leafets, whitish underneath, entire or 

 slightly toothed. The flowers grow in loose panicles from the 

 axils of the last year's leaves. Their stalks have opposite 

 branches with bractes at base. The barren flowers consist sim- 

 ply of two large, oblong, reddish anthers, proceeding from a 

 minute dentated tubercle which seems to be a calyx. The fer- 

 tile ones have a small calyx, an ovate germ, and a long style 

 ending in two stigmas. They are succeeded by winged capsules, 

 which are cylindrical at base, but dilated at their end into a 

 long, flat appendage, somewhat lanceolate in form, but blunt or 

 ernarginate at the end. The wood of the common Ash is ex- 

 ceedingly durable, firm, and elastic, with a tolerable degree of 



