TREES OF AMERICA. 187 



" The tupelo, Uncle Philip ! Then, I sup. 

 pose, it does not grow anywhere near here, 

 for I never heard of such a tree." 



" No ; the tupeloes are properly southern 

 trees, though some of them are found in New- 

 York and JS^ew- Jersey. The variety called 

 the black gum is a fine tree, sixty or seventy 

 feet high, but very slender : and it has one 

 remarkable peculiarity ; the trunk is almost 

 always found to be twice as large close to the 

 ground as it is a foot higher ; it diminishes 

 in size very rapidly to the height of twelve or 

 fourteen inches, and then tapers up gradually 

 like any other tree, so that it spreads out at 

 the bottom, like a sugar-loaf The leaves are 

 five or six inches long, oval-shaped, smooth 

 at the edges, of a shining green on the upper 

 side, and whitish on the under ; they grow 

 on slender red stems. The flo^vvers are very 

 small, and grow in bunches : the fruit is oval, 

 of a deep blue colour, and something like a 

 whortleberry, only longer and not as round ; 

 it has in it a stone like a plum-stone, and 

 always grows in pairs. The bark is white, 

 and the wood yellow, and fine-grained. It is 

 not liable to split, and for this reason is much 



