84. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. CORNACEZ. 
or less united below into an involucral cup. The calyx of the sterile flower is cup-shaped, obscurely 
five-toothed, and a third of the length of the oblong erect petals which are rounded at the apex and 
much shorter than the stamens. In the fertile flower the calyx is oblong and much longer than the 
ovate minute spreading petals; the stamens are included, with small mostly fertile anthers ; the upper 
half of the stout tapering style is reflexed above the middle and revolute into a close coil. The fruit, 
which ripens in the early autumn, is oblong or slightly obovate, crowned with the pointed remnants of 
the style, dark purple, marked with conspicuous scattered pale dots, an inch long, and borne on slender 
drooping stalks three or four inches in length; the flesh is thin and acid, and is covered by a thick 
tough skin; the stone is ovate, pointed at the base, flattened, light brown or nearly white, thick-walled 
and about ten-ridged, the ridges being acute and wing-like with thickened separable margins and 
sometimes united by short intermediate ridges. The seed is compressed and pointed at both ends, with 
a pale thin coat and thin albumen. 
Nyssa aquatica is distributed through the coast region of the Atlantic states from southern 
Virginia to northern Florida, through the Gulf states to the valley of the Nueces River in Texas, 
and through Arkansas and southern and southeastern Missouri to western Kentucky and Tennessee 
and to the valley of the lower Wabash River in Illinois. It is an inhabitant of deep swamps inundated 
during a part of every year, growing in great numbers with the Cypress, the Liquidamber, the Swamp 
White Oak, the Water Ash, the Scarlet Maple, the Water Locust, and the Cottonwood. In some parts 
of the country, especially in the valley of the lower Mississippi River, the Tupelo Gum is one of the 
largest and most abundant of the semiaquatic trees. It attains its greatest size in the Cypress swamps 
of western Louisiana and eastern Texas. 
The wood of Nyssa aquatica is light, soft, not strong, close-grained, and difficult to split; it 
contains numerous thin medullary rays, and is light brown or often nearly white, with thick sapwood 
sometimes composed of more than a hundred layers of annual growth. ‘The specific gravity of the 
absolutely dry wood is 0.5194, a cubic foot weighing 32.37 pounds. It is used in the manufacture 
of wooden-ware, broom-handles, and wooden shoes, and now largely for fruit and vegetable boxes ;1 
the wood of the roots is sometimes used instead of cork for the floats of nets. 
The first account of Nyssa aquatica appears in Catesby’s Natural History of Carolina. It was, 
perhaps, introduced by Catesby into English gardens, as according to Aiton*® it was cultivated near 
London by Peter Collinson* in 1735. At the present time it is probably not to be found outside of 
its native swamps. 
1 Garden and Forest, ii. 122. Nyssa pedunculis unifloris, Clayton, Fl. Virgin. 121. 
2 Arbor in aqua nascens, foliis latis acuminatis & dentatis, fructu 8 Hort. Kew. iii. 447. 
Eleagni majore, i. 60, t. 60. * Seei. 8. 
7 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Pirate CCXX. Nyssa Aquatica. 
. A flowering branch of the sterile tree, natural size. 
- A flowering branch of the fertile tree, natural size. 
- A staminate flower, enlarged. 
. A pistillate flower, enlarged. 
. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
Vertical section of a fruit, natural size. 
. Cross section of a fruit, natural size. 
. A stone, enlarged. 
WCWONAANPRWONE 
. A winter branchlet, natural size. 
