Handbook of Trees of the Northern States and Canada. 36Y 



This interesting semi-aquatic tree is ths 

 statliest and most useful of the American 

 Tupelos, sometimes attaining the lieight of 100 

 ft., with sti'aight columnar trunk 3 or 4 ft. in 

 diameter above its wide base. This may be 

 G or 8 ft. across at the surface of the ground, 

 and is usually hollow. The Avide base is 

 nature's provision to give the tree stability in 

 the loose miry soil in which it grows. It in- 

 habits deep swamps and the margins of streams 

 and ponds, where its base is covered with water 

 during a considerable portion of the year. 

 Here its* associates are mainly the Bald 

 Cypress, Water Gum, Planer-tree, Water and 

 Pumpkin Ashes, River Birch, Water Hickory, 

 etc. Among these it is a tree of striking ap- 

 pearance, with its large lustrous green leaver 

 and clusters of long-stemmed fruit, which sug- 

 gest so many small dates in appearance, but 

 the extreme opposite of them in flavor. 



Its wood is rather light, a cubic foot weigh- 

 ing 32.37 lbs., soft, very close-grained and more 

 easily worked than that of the other Tupelos. 

 It is used in the manufacture of wooden-ware, 

 bo.xes, fruit-crates, etc. 2 



Leaves ovate-oblong to oval, mostly rounded or 

 .<^ubcordate at base, long-acuminate, irregularly 

 angular-dentate or entire, tomentose at first but 

 finally glabrous dark green above, pale and downy 

 pubescent beneath, 5-10 in. long: petioles l%-2i4 

 in. long. Flowers, appear in March and April, 

 with long slender peduncles from the axils of bud- 

 scales below the new leaves ; the staminate in 

 dense capitate clusters, the pistillate solitary ; 

 style revolute into a coil. Fruit on slender droop- 

 ing stems, 2-4 in. long, obovoid, tipped with the 

 remnant.s of the style, about 1 in. long, dark 

 purple with pale dots, tough skin and narrow 

 obovoid stone, compressed and with about 10 

 sharp wing-like longitudinal ridges. 



1. Xyssa uniflora Wang. 



2. A. W., XII, 282. 



