424 
NYSSA B1FL0RA. 
ger Tupelobaum, of the Germans ; Mountain Tupelo-tree, Sour Gum-tree, Black 
Gum, Yellow Gum, of the Anglo-Americans. This variety, which attains a 
height of sixty or seventy feet, is a native of 
Maryland, Virginia, and of the western states, 
where it grows on high and level ground, asso- 
ciated with oaks and walnuts ; but in the lower 
parts of Carolina and Georgia, it is found only 
in moist or wet places, with the Magnolia glauca, 
Laurus carolinensis, (red bay,) Gordonia lasian- 
thus, (loblolly bay,) and the Que re us aquatica 
(water oak.) In the latter situations, it ex- 
hibits a very remarkable singularity of vege- 
tation, often having a trunk eighteen or twenty 
feet in height, with a diameter of seven or eight 
inches, at the surface of the ground, and only 
two or three inches at a foot above ; but the 
proportions vary in different individuals. This 
tree appears to differ but a very little from the 
species, except in its greater height, and in the 
downiness of the petioles of the leaves. The 
fruit is of about the same shape, size, and col- 
our, generally produced in pairs on similar peduncles, and the wood is of the 
same description, fine-grained, and tough. The alburnum of the trunks of trees 
growing upon dry and elevated lands, is yellow; and this colour, being consid- 
ered by wheelwrights as a proof of the superior quality of the wood, has probably 
given rise to the name of " yellow gum," which is sometimes applied to the spe- 
cies. Throughout the greater part of Virginia, this wood is employed for the 
naves of coach and wagon wheels. At Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia, &c., 
it is preferred for hatters' blocks, to any other wood, being but little liable to split. 
In the southern states, it is employed for the cylinders which receive the cogs of 
rice mills. It is also sometimes chosen by shipwrights for the caps or pieces that 
receive the topmasts. 
Geography and History. The Nyssa bifiora begins to appear in the lower 
part of New Hampshire, where the climate is tempered by the ocean ; and, in 
progressing southward, it is found most abundantly in the easterly parts of New 
York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; but in Virginia and Carolina, it is more 
sparingly produced, and, as in the north, it always occurs in moist ground or in 
watery places. 
This species was introduced into Britain in 1739, and is not unfrequent in 
European and American collections. The largest recorded tree in Europe, is at 
the Countess of Shaftesbury's villa, in Richmond, England, which, in 1836, was 
forty-five feet high, with a trunk sixteen inches in diameter. 
At Schwobber, in Hanover, Germany, there is another specimen, which, in 
sixty years after planting, had attained the height of forty feet, with a wide- 
spreading head, and branches drooping to the ground. It is planted in a low, 
moist situation, and the roots, which extend to a great distance, send up innumer- 
able suckers. In autumn, the leaves, before dropping off, become as red as blood. 
On the seat of the late Mr. Astor, near Hurl-gate, New York, there is a tree of 
this species, which has attained a height of more than forty feet, with a trunk a 
foot in diameter. 
Propagation, fyc. The Nyssa bifiora may be multiplied by seeds, and by cut- 
tings or layers ; and, to insure the prosperity of the tree, it ought always to be 
planted in moist peat, near water. A splendid specimen at Strathfieldsaye, on 
the estate of the Duke of Wellington, as well as the tree above referred to, at 
