Nyssa candicans, 
WHITISH-LEAVED NYSSA. 
Synonymes. 
Nyssa capitata, Michaux:, North American Sylva. 
I Michaux, Flora Boreali- Americana. 
Willdenow, Linnaei Species Plantarum. 
Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum. 
Tupelo blanchatre, Tupelo a fruit aigre, France. 
Weisslicher Tupelobaum, Germany. 
Tupelo bianchiccio, Italy. 
Ogechee Lime-tree, Britain. 
Sour Tupelo-tree, Ogechee Lime-tree, ) UNITFn q tatfs 
Wild Lime-tree, ) UNITED &TATES - 
Derivation. The specific name candicans is derived from the Latin candeo, to be white, having reference to the whitish 
colour of the leaves on their under surface. The word capitata is derived from caput, the head, on account of the male flowers 
oeing grouped in little heads. It is called Sour Tupelo, Lime-tree, &c, from the agreeable acid juice contained in the fruit. 
Engravings. Michaux, North American Sylva, pi. 113; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, iii., fig. 1199; and the figures 
below. 
Specific Characters. Leaf with the petiole very short, and the disk oblong, wedge-shaped at the base, 
nearly entire, whitish on the under surface. Female flowers one upon a peduncle. Willdenow, Linncsi 
Spec. Plant. 
Description. 
HE Nyssa candicans, in its natural habitat, rarely ex- 
j* ceeds thirty feet in height, with a trunk seven or eight 
inches in diameter. The branches of the male trees 
are somewhat compressed about their trunks, and tend 
towards a perpendicular direction ; while those of the female trees diffuse them- 
selves horizontally, and form a larger and rounder summit. The leaves are five 
or six inches in length, oval, rarely denticulated, of a light-green above, and 
whitish beneath. The male flowers are grouped in little heads, and appear in 
April or May. The bracteas attending the female flowers are short, the calyx 
tomentose, with its lobes short. And the sexes are borne by separate trees. 
The fruit is supported by long peduncles, and is about an inch and a half in 
length, of a light-red colour, and of an oval shape. It is thick-skinned, 
intensely acid, and contains a large, oblong stone, deeply channelled on both 
sides. 
Variety. N. c. grandidentata. Deeply -toothed Whitish-leaved Nyssa ; Nyssa 
grandidentata, of Michaux and Loudon ; Tupelo a grandes dents, Grand Tu- 
pelo, of the French ; Gross gezdhnter Tupelobaum, of the Germans ; Large 
Tupelo-tree, Wild Olive-tree, of the Anglo-Americans. This variety, for height 
and diameter, is the most remarkable tree of the genus. In favourable situations, 
it attains a height of seventy or eighty feet, with a diameter of eight or nine feet 
at the surface of the ground, fifteen or twenty inches at six or seven feet above, 
from which point its size continues uniform to an elevation of twenty-five or 
thirty feet. The leaves are commonly five or six inches long, and two or three 
inches broad ; but on young and thriving plants they are double of these dimen- 
sions. They are of an oval shape, and garnished with two or three large teeth, 
which are irregularly placed, and generally only on one side of the leaf, as denoted 
