780 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



filaments filiform; anthers oblong; ovary 0; pistillate flowers on axillary peduncles, in 2 

 or few-flowered clusters, sessile or nearly so, in the axils of conspicuous bracts and furnished 

 with 1 or 2 small lateral bractlets, or solitary and surrounded by 2-4 bractlets; calyx-tube 

 campanulate, sometimes slightly urceolate, the limb 5-toothed; petals small, thick, and 

 spreading; stamens 5-10; filaments short; anthers fertile or sterile; disk less developed than 

 in the staminate flower, depressed in the centre; ovary 1 or 2-celled; style terete, elongated, 

 recurved, stigmatic toward the apex or the inner face; raphe ventral. Fruit drupaceous, 

 short-oblong, fleshy, urceolate at apex; flesh thin, oily, acidulous; stone thick- walled, bony, 

 terete or compressed, ribbed or winged, 1 or rarely 2-celled, usually 1-seeded. Seed filling 

 the cavity of the stone; seed-coat pale; embryo straight. 



Nyssa with six species is confined to the eastern United States and to southern and 

 eastern Asia, where one species is distributed from the eastern Himalayas to the island of 

 Java and another occurs in central and western China. The American species produce 

 tough wood, with intricately contorted and twisted grain. 



Nyssa, the name of a nymph, was given to this genus from the fact that one of the species 

 grows in water. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES. 



Pistillate flowers in 2 or few-flowered clusters, their calyx disciform; fruit blue, not more 



than f ' long; stone with broad rounded ribs. 

 Stone indistinctly ribbed; leaves linear-oblong to oval or obovate. 



1. N. sylvatica (A, C). 

 Stone prominently ribbed; leaves oblanceolate to oblong or elliptic. 



2. N.biflora(C). 

 Pistillate flowers solitary, their calyx cup-shaped; fruit 1' or more long. 



Fruit red; stone with prominent wings; leaves oblong-oval or obovate, usually obtuse at 



apex. 3. N. ogeche (C). 



Fruit purple; stone with acute ridges; leaves oval or oblong, acute or acuminate at apex. 



4. N. aquatica (A, C). 



1. Nyssa sylvatica Marsh. Tupelo. Pepperidge. Sour Gum. 



Leaves crowded at the end of lateral branchlets or remote on vigorous shoots, linear- 

 oblong, lanceolate, oval or obovate, acute or acuminate or sometimes contracted into a 



Fig. 700 



short broad point at apex, cuneate or occasionally rounded at base, entire, with slightly 

 thickened margins, or rarely coarsely dentate, coated when they unfold with rufous tomen- 

 tum, especially on the lower surface, or pubescent or sometimes nearly glabrous, and at 



