THE TUPELO. 



THE old town of Beverly, which was a part of Salem 

 during the era of witchcraft, abounds, like other townships 

 on the northern coast of Massachusetts Bay, in rugged 

 and romantic scenery. On one of the bald hills of this 

 town, a pond fed by a spring near the top of the hill 

 served as a watering-place for the flocks that were pas- 

 tured there. The only tree on this elevation of bare gran- 

 ite, interspersed with little meadows of thin soil, covered 

 with sweet-fern and whortleberry-bushes, stood on the 

 brink of this pond. It was an ancient Tupelo, and at- 

 tracted the attention of every visitor by the singular man- 

 ner in which it spread its long branches in a crooked and 

 horizontal direction over this emerald pool. It became 

 the wonder of all that the tree should adopt such an 

 eccentricity of habit, hardly showing a single branch on 

 the land side, and bending over the water like an angler 

 sitting at his task. It was evident that it had never been 

 trimmed into this shape by artificial means. Many peo- 

 ple, therefore, believed that its grotesque appearance had 

 some connection with witchcraft, and that the witches 

 who were hanged upon it had caused all the branches to 

 wither and fall on the side that held the victims. 



This tree has, I believe, no representative on the old 

 continent ; and though there are several species in the 

 United States, only one is found in New England. Here 

 it is one of the most remarkable trees as a picturesque 

 object in landscape. Indeed, there is no other tree, not 

 excepting the oak, that will compare with it in certain 



