162 CORNACE^E. (DOGWOOD FAMILY.) 



&. paniculata, L'Her. (PANICLED CORNEL.) Branches gray, 

 ftnooth ; leaves ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed, acute at the base, whitish beneath but 

 not downy ; cymes convex, loose, often panicled ; fruit white, depressed-globose. 

 Thickets and river-banks. June. Shrub 4 -8 high, very much branched, 

 bearing a profusion of pure white blossoms. 



# * Leaves mostly alternate, crowded at the ends of the branches. 



9. C. alternifolia, L. (ALTERNATE-LEAVED CORNEL.) Branches 

 greenish streaked with white, alternate ; leaves ovate or oval* long-pointed, acute at 

 the base, whitish and minutely pubescent underneath ; fruit deep blue. Hill- 

 sides in copses. May, June. Shrub or tree 8 - 20 high, generally throwing 

 its branches to one side in a flattish top, and with broad, very open cymes. 



2* NYSSA, L. TUPELO. PEPPERJDGE. SOUR GUM-TREE. 



Flowers diosciously polygamous, clustered or rarely solitary at the summit 

 of axillary peduncles. Stain. Fl. numerous in a simple or compound dense 

 cluster of fascicles. Calyx small, 5-parted. Stamens 5-12, oftener 10, inserted 

 on the outside of a convex disk : filaments slender : anthers short. No pistil. 

 Pist. FL solitary or 2 - 8, sessile in a bracted cluster, much larger than the stam- 

 inate flowers. Calyx with a very short repand-truncate or minutely 5-toothed 

 limb. Petals very small and fleshy, deciduous, or often wanting. Stamens 5 - 

 10, with perfect anthers, or imperfect. Style elongated, revolute, stigmatic 

 down one side. Ovary one-celled. Drupe ovoid or oblong, with a bony and 

 grooved or striate 1 -celled and 1 -seeded stone. Trees, with entire or some- 

 times angulate-toothed leaves, which are alternate, but mostly crowded at the end 

 of the branchlets, and greenish flowers appearing with the leaves. (The name 

 of a Nymph : " so called because it [the original species] grows in the water.") 



1. N. nitaltiflora, Wang. (TUPELO. PEPPERIDGE. BLACK or SOUR 

 GUM.) Leaves oval or obovate, commonly acuminate, glabrous or villous-pubes- 

 cent when young, at least on the margins and midrib, shining above when old 

 (2' -5' long) ; fertile flowers 3-8, at the summit of a slender peduncle ; fruit 

 ovoid, bluish-black (about ' long). (N. aquatica, L., at least in part; but the 

 tree is not aquatic. N. sylvatica, Marsh. N. villosa, WiUd, &c., &c.) Rich 

 soil, either moist or nearly dry, Massachusetts to Illinois, and southward. April, 

 May. A middle-sized tree, with horizontal branches and a light flat spray, 

 like the Beech : the wood firm, close-grained, and very unwedgeable, on account 

 of the oblique direction and crossing of the fibre of different layers. Leaves 

 turning bright crimson in autumn. 



2. N. imiflora, Walt. (LARGE TUPELO.) Leaves oblong or ovate, 

 sometimes slightly cordate at the base, long-petioled, entire or angulate-toothed, 

 pale and downy-pubescent beneath, at least when young (4' - 12' long) ; fertile 

 flower solitary on a slender peduncle ; fruit oblong, blue (!' or more in length). 



(N. denticulata, Ait. N. tomentosa and angulisans, Michx. N. grandidentata, 

 Michx. f.) In water or wet swamps, Virginia, Kentucky, and southward- 

 April. Wood soft : that of the roots very light and spongy, used for corks 



