220 SYL.VA AMERICANA. 



beneath, alternate, and often united in bunches at the extremity 

 of the young lateral shoots. The flowers are small, scarcely 

 apparent, collected in bunches and supported by petioles one or 

 two inches in length. They open in April or May. The fruit 

 which is always abundant, is of a deep blue color, about the size 

 of a pea, and attached in pairs. It is ripe in October, and 

 persisting after the fall of the leaves, it serves for a part of the 

 food of the red breasts in their autumnal migration to the south. 

 The stone is compressed on one side, a little convex on the 

 other, and longitudinally situated. 



The tupelo holds a middle place between trees with soft and 

 those with hard wood. When perfectly seasoned the sap is of a 

 slight reddish tint, and the heart of a deep brown. Of trees 

 exceeding fifteen inches in diameter, more than half the trunk is 

 hollow. The ligneous fibres which compose the body of trees 

 in general are closely united, and usually ascend in a perpendic- 

 ular direction. But the genus, which we are now considering, 

 exhibits, on the contrary, a constant peculiarity of organization ; 

 the fibres are united in bundles, and are interwoven like a braided 

 cord ; hence the wood is ex"tremely difficult to split, unless cut 

 into short billets. This property gives it a decided superiority 

 for certain uses ; in New York, New Jersey and particularly at 

 Philadelphia, it is exclusively employed for the naves of wheels 

 destined for heavy burthens. Wooden bowls are made of it 

 which are heavier than those of poplar, but less liable to split. 

 As a combustible it is esteemed for consuming slowly and 

 diffusing a great heat. 



Sour Tupelo. JYyssa capitata. 



The Sour Tupelo first makes its appearance on the river 

 Ogeechee, near the road from Savannah to Sudbury, and in going 

 southward it is seen in every favorable situation. It is said that 

 it exists in Lower Louisiana, which is probable from the analogy 

 in soil and climate between the ancient Southern States and the 

 country watered by the lower part of the Mississippi. In Georgia 



