XI. THE TUPELO TREE. 313 
as well as some small herbaceous plants; in New Holland, the 
Fast Indies, and the South Sea Islands, trees and shrubs; in 
Europe, only in conspicuous weeds. 
One genus of the trees of Massachusetts belongs to it, Tus 
‘Tureto, Nyssa. L. This is placed by some writers,* in the 
Linnzan class Diecia, order Pentandnia; by others,+ in Pentan- 
dria, Monogynia; by Linnzeus himself and others,t in his class 
Poly gamia. 
On different trees three kinds of flowers are found, some con- 
taining only stamens, others stamens and a pistil; others only a 
pistil. None have a proper corolla. In the staminate flowers, 
the calyx is five-parted; the stamens from five to ten or twelve, 
inserted around a glandlike disk. In the pistillate flowers, the 
calyx is five-cleft; stamens five or none; the style simple, often 
revolute; succeeded by a one-seeded, somewhat fleshy drupe, 
containing an ovate,. striate nut. 
This genus is confined to North America. The trees grow 
by streams or stagnant waters. They have alternate leaves, 
entire, or with large angular teeth, and are smooth, reticulate or 
downy beneath; and flowers springing from the axil of the 
leaves, the male in racemes or heads, the fertile solitary, or with 
two or three on a stem. 
Of the trees of this kind found in this State, varying exceed- 
ingly in their shape, and especially in their leaves, I have had 
great hesitation, whether to consider them as belonging to two 
or three species, or only as varieties of one. I am rather in- 
clined to the latter conclusion, and that they belong to the spe- 
cies which has been called 
THE 'TUPELO TREE. WNy’ssa miltifiora. Walter. 
In Bristol County, and the other south-eastern counties, this 
is called the Snag Tree, and sometimes Horn Pine. In the 
western parts of the State, itis called Pepperidge; and often, in 
every part, it is called Hornbeam, from the extreme toughness 
of the wood. It is nowhere called Gum Tree, by which name 
it is commonly known in the Middle and Southern States. The 
* Nuttall, Elhott. + Darlington. t Bigelow. 
Al 
