NYSSA SYLVATICA, MARSH. 159 



Nyssa sylvatica, Marsh. 

 TUPELO. SOUR GUM. PEPPERIDGE. 



Habitat and Range. In rich, moist soil, in swamps and on 

 the borders of rivers and ponds. 



Ontario. 



Maine, Waterville on the Kennebec, the most northern 

 station yet reported (Dr. Ezekiel Holmes) ; New Hampshire, 

 most common in the Merrimac valley, seldom seen north 

 of the White mountains ; Vermont, occasional ; Massa- 

 chusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, rather common. 



South to Florida ; west to Michigan, Missouri, and Texas. 



H a |tit;. Tree 20-50 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 1-2 

 feet, rising in the forest to the height of 60-80 feet ; attain- 

 ing greater dimensions farther south ; lower branches hori- 

 zontal or declining, often touching the ground at their tips, 

 the upper horizontal or slightly rising, angular, repeatedly 

 subdividing ; branchlets very numerous, short and stiff, 

 making a flat spray ; head extremely variable, unique in 

 picturesqueness of outline ; usually broad-spreading, flat- 

 topped or somewhat rounded; often reduced in Nantucket 

 and upon the southern shore of Cape Cod to a shrub or small 

 tree of 10-15 feet in height, forming low, dense, tangled 

 thickets. Foliage very abundant, dark lustrous green, turn- 

 ing early in the fall to a brilliant crimson. 



Bark. Trunk of young trees grayish- white, with irreg- 

 ular and shallow striations, in old trees darker, breaking up 

 into somewhat hexagonal or lozenge-shaped scales ; branches 

 smooth and brown ; season's shoots reddish-green, with a few 

 minute dots. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Buds ovoid, - inch long, 

 obtuse. Leaves simple, irregularly alternate, often appar- 

 ently whorled when clustered at the ends of the shoots, 2-5 

 inches long, one-half as wide; at first bright green beneath, 

 dullish-green above, becoming dark glossy green above, paler 

 beneath, obovate or oblanceolate to oval; entire, few or 



