FOREST TREES. 175 



Flowers greenish- white, one fourth of an inch broad. Fruit 

 blue-black, bitter, ripening in June and July. Usually a shrub, 

 but in favorable locations reaching a hight of twenty feet. 

 Coast Ranges of California and northward to Puget Sound. 



2^ YSSA, L. — Sour Gum. 



A genus of North American deciduous trees, principally in 

 swamps and low, moist soils. Flowers small, greenish, sterile 

 ones numerous in clusters, the fertile, solitary or few in a bud. 

 Fruit a one-seeded drupe, in some species edible. Usually 

 pi'opagated by seed or layers, but the wild plants can be ob- 

 tained in abundance. 



]Vjssa capitata, Walt. — Ogeechee Lime. — Leaves three to five 

 inches long, oblong on short petioles, whitish beneath. Flowers 

 below the leaves, the fertile ones solitary, on short stalks. 

 Fruit about an inch long, oval, red, and the pulp of an agree- 

 able, sub-acid flavor. The conseiwe known as the "Ogeechee 

 Lime," is prepared from this fruit. Swamps of Georgia and 

 Florida, and westward. A tree thirty feet high, with veiy 

 tough, cross-grained wood. 



y.> Caroliiiia^a, Poir. — Carolina Gum Tree. — Leaves from one 

 to two inches long, broad, lanceolate, sometimes slightly heart- 

 sliaped at base. Fruit small, dark-blue. A large tree in South- 

 em swamjjs, with moderately firm, close-grained wood, veiy 

 difficult to split, and for this reason is much used for hubs and 

 similar purposes. The leaves turn to a brilliant crimson color 

 in autumn, making these trees very conspicuous objects in the 

 forests at that season. North Carolina to Florida in swamps 

 and low grounds. 



]V. ninltiflora, Wang. — Tupelo, Pepperidge. — Leaves oval, 

 rather thick, and dark-green, two to five inches long. Sterile 

 flowers in loose clusters, fertile clusters long and slender, con- 

 taining from three to eight flowers. Fruit ovoid, dark-blue, 

 about a half an inch long. A large tree fifty to sixty feet high, 

 with stem two feet iu diameter. Wood tough, cross-grained, 

 difficult to split, used for hubs and similar purposes. A hand- 

 some ornamental tree, growing rapidly in moist soils, the 

 branches spreading widely at right angles from the stem. 

 Leaves change to a bright crimson in autumn. Common in 

 low grounds from Vermont, New York, New Jersey, and 

 southward to Florida, also in the Western States. 



