Nyssa 509 
Louisiana, is probably only a variety of yssa sylvatica, Marshall; and no trees 
referable without doubt to it are known to us in England. Nyssa sylvatica, 
Marshall, and yssa aquatica, Marshall, occur rarely in cultivation in England. 
NYSSA SYLVATICA, Tureto, Pepreripce, BLack Gum 
Nyssa sylvatica, Marshall, Arbust. Am. 97 (1785); Sargent, Silva NM. Amer. v. 75, t. 217 (1893), 
and Zrees V. Amer, 707 (1905). 
Nyssa multiflora, Wangenheim, Wordam. Holz. 46, t. 16, f. 39 (1787). 
Lyssa villosa, Michaux, #. Bor. Am. ii. 258 (1803); Loudon, Avd. e¢ Frut. Brit. iii. 1317 
(1838). 
A tree, occasionally attaining in America 100 feet in height and 15 feet in girth. 
Bark thick and deeply fissured longitudinally. Young shoots glabrous or with short, 
erect pubescence. Leaves (Plate 199, Fig. 2, leaf from a tree in Arnold Arboretum, 
U.S.; and Fig. 9, leaf from a tree at Kew) extremely variable in shape and size, 
obovate, oval or elliptical; base tapering or rounded, apex acuminate or acute, 
margin entire or repand and ciliate; upper surface glabrous, dark green, usually 
shining; lower surface glabrous or with slight pubescence on the midrib and 
principal veins. Petiole channelled or winged, glabrous or pubescent, 4+ to 1 inch 
long. Flowers on pubescent peduncles, appearing after the leaves; staminate 
flowers numerous, stalked and in crowded clusters; pistillate flowers sessile, two to 
fourteen ina head. Fruit ovoid, bluish-black,.4 to 2 inch long ; stone terete or more 
or less flattened, with ten to twelve indistinct ribs. 
Seedling. —The caulicle, glabrous, terete, and about 2 inches long, ends in a 
long flexuose whitish tap-root, which gives off numerous lateral fibres. The 
cotyledons are ovate-lanceolate, rounded at both base and apex, about 14 inch 
long by inch broad, on petioles 4 inch long, slightly coriaceous, entire in margin, 
pale beneath, glabrous, pinnately veined. The stem, reddish and pubescent, gives 
off alternately the true leaves, which are oval, with a cuneate base and acuminate 
apex, entire or one- to two-toothed and ciliate in margin, pale and glabrous on the 
under surface with the exception of some pubescence at the base of the midrib, and 
with a pubescent petiole. The preceding description was drawn up in the summer 
of 1905, from a seedling at Colesborne, raised from seed gathered by Elwes at 
Boston at the end of the preceding September. 
IDENTIFICATION 
Nyssa sylvatica, with leaves quite glabrous or pubescent only on the midrib and 
principal veins beneath, is readily distinguishable from yssa aguatica, with leaves 
grey and pubescent all over the under surface, and with one or two teeth often on 
the margin. VVyssa sznensis, which resembles in foliage Myssa sylvatica, is dis- 
tinguished by the appressed pubescence of the shoots. 
In winter WVyssa sylvatica (Plate 200, Fig. 5) shows the following characters :— 
