Nijssa candicans, 

 WHITISH-LEAVED NYSSA. 



Synonyrncs. 



Nyssa capitate, 



Nyssa candicans, 



Tupelo blanchatre, Tupelo a fruit aigre, 

 Weisslicher Tupelobauin, 

 Tupelo bianchiccio, 

 Ogechee Lime-tree, 



Sour Tupelo-tree, Ogechee Lime-tree, 

 Wild Lime-tree, 



MiciiAUX, North Amcriran Sylva. 



MintAiix, Flora Boreali- Americana. 



WiLLDE.vow, Liun.-ri Species Plantarum. 



Loudon, Arboretum Brilaiinicuin. 



France. 



Germany. 



Italy. 



Britain. 



United States. 



Michaux, North American Sylva, pi. 113; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, iii., fig. 1199; and the fig'j<rs 



Derivation. The specific name candicans is derived from the I.alin candeo, to be white, having reference to the whitish 

 colour of ihe leaves on their under surface. The word capitata is derived from caput, llie head, on account of the male flowers 

 l>eing grouped in little heads. It is called Sour Tupelo, Lime-tree, &c., from the agreeable acid juice contained in the fruit. 



Engravings. 

 l)elow. 



Specific Characters. Leaf with the petiole very short, and the disk oblong, wedge-shaped at the base, 

 nearly entire, whitish on the under surface. Female flowers one upon a peduncle. Willdenow, Linnai 

 Spec. Plant. 



Descnptio7i. 



HE Nyssa candicans, in its natural habitat, rarely ex- 

 ^ ceeds thirty feet in height, with a trunk seven or eight 

 inches in diameter. The branches of the male trees 

 are somewhat compressed about their trunks, and tend 

 towards a perpendicular direction ; while those of the female trees diffuse them- 

 selves horizontally, and form a larger and rounder summit. The leaves are five 

 or six inches in length, oval, rarely denticulated, of a light-green above, and 

 whitish beneath. The male flowers are grouped in little heads, and appear in 

 April or May. The bracteas attending the female flowers are short, the calyx 

 tomentose, with its lobes short. And the sexes are borne by separate trees. 

 The fruit is supported by long peduncles, and is about an inch and a half in 

 length, of a light-red colour, and of an oval shape. It is thick-skinned, 

 intensely acid, and contains a large, oblong stone, deeply channelled on both 

 sides. 



Variety. N. c. grandidentata. Deeply-toothed Whitish-leaved Nyssa ; Nyssa 

 grandidentata, of Michaux and Loudon ; Tupelo a grandes detits, Grand Tu- 

 pelo^ of the French ; Gross gezdhnter Tupelohaum., of the Germans ; Large 

 Tupelo-tree.^ Wild Olive-tree., of the Anglo-Americans. This variety, for height 

 and diameter, is the most remarkable tree of the genus. In favourable situations, 

 it attains a height of seventy or eighty feet, with a diameter of eight or nine feet 

 at the surface of the ground, fifteen or twenty inches at six or seven feet above, 

 from which point its size continues uniform to an elevation of twenty-five or 

 thirty feet. The leaves are commonly five or six inches long, and two or three 

 inches broad ; but on young and thriving plants they are double of these dimen- 

 sions. They are of an oval shape, and garnished with two or three large teeth, 

 which are irregularly placed, and generally only on one side of the leaf, as denoted 



