110. NYSSA OGECHE OGEECHEE LIME, SOUR TUPELLO. 35 



and, with the stamens, borne on an epigynous disk in the perfect flowers ; ovary 

 1-celled, bearing a single suspended ovule ; style single, somewhat club-shaped. 

 Fruit a 1-2-seeded baccate drupe, bearing the persistent limb of the calyx. 

 Trees, shrubs or rarely herbs, with bitter, tonic bark. 



GENUS NYSSA, L. 



Leaves mostly entire, but sometimes angulate-toothed, and mostly at the ends of 

 the branchlets. Flowers greenish and appearing with the leaves, dioecious or 

 polygamous, clustered or rarely solitary on axillary peduncles. Staminate flowers 

 more numerous, and in these the calyx-tube is small, limb truncate or 5-parted ; 

 petals usually 5, small, oblong and soon deciduous or wanting; stamens 5-12, com- 

 monly 10, inserted outside of a convex glandular disk, filaments slender ; anthers 

 short ; ovary none. Pistillate flowers much larger than the staminate ; calyx-tube 

 oblong, adherent to the ovary, limb a mere rim as with staminate flowers ; petals 

 2-5, as in staminate flowers, or wanting ; ovary 1-celled, style large, revolute, stig- 

 matic down one side. Fruit an ovoid or oblong, one-seeded drupe, with a striated 

 stone. 



no. NYSSA OGECHE, MARSHALL.* 

 OGEECHEE LIME, SOUR TUPELLO, GOPHER PLUM. 



Ger., Weisslicher Tupelobaum ; Fr., Tupelo Uanchatre ; Sp., Lima de 



Ogeechee. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves oblong-oval to obovate, 4-6 in. long, usually acute 

 or rounded and apiculate at apex, cuneate to rounded at base, mostly entire, short- 

 petiolate, coriaceous, dark-green and with minute, scattering, appressed hairs above, 

 paler and pubescent beneath (especially when young, more glabrous later), with 

 stout mid-veins and petioles rufous-tomentose. Flowers appear in March or April, 

 the perfect Us. solitary, about ^ in. or less in length, on short tomentose peduncles fur- 

 nished at the apex with two bractlets ; calyx deep cup-shaped, 5-lobed tomentose ; petals 

 5, also tomentose outside, stamens 5-10, included, with short filaments and small an- 

 thers; pistil with short exserted style reflexed from near its base. Sterile flowers minute, 

 20 or more together in a globular head, with peduncle f to H in. in length, furnished 

 outside with pale hairs ; calyx short, 5-toothed ; petals oblong, rounded at apex ; 

 stamens 5-10, inserted beneath the edge of a thick disk, longer than the petals and 

 with anthers larger than in the perfect flowers, tubercled and rough. Fruit ripe 

 soon after mid-summer, reddish, oblong or obovoid, 1 in. or a little more in length, 

 glabrous, tipped with the remnant of the style and borne on tomentose stems about 

 in. in length, and thickened at the extremity; flesh juicy and strongly but agreeably 

 acid ; stone oblong, nearly as long as the drupe, compressed and shell marked with 

 10 to 12 longitudinal ridges which are continued into papery septa ; seed compressed 

 and furnished with thick albumen. 



(The specific name is given to this tree from the name of a river in Georgia, the 

 Ogeechee, along which this tree is found in considerable abundance.) 



A tree rarely over 50 ft. (15 m.) in height with a short thick trunk 

 sometimes 3 or 4 ft. (1 m.) in diameter, and dividing low down into two 

 or three large forks or sending out irregularly spreading branches. The 

 bark of trunk is of a brownish-gray color with firm longitudinal ridges 

 which are more or less divided by transverse fissures into irregular squares 

 and polygons. 



HABITAT. The Ogeechee Lime is found from the valley of the 

 Savannah "River through Georgia to northern Florida, growing along low 

 river-banks and swamps subject to frequent inundation. It is rare and 

 local in its distribution. 



* Nyssa capitata, Walter. 



