COEXEL FAMILY. 



159 



cillate branches once furnisliecl distaffs for spinsters, — in the " good old 

 times when that description of females had a practical existence in the 

 community. The hark is an excellent tonic, — almost rivalling the Pe- 

 ruvian in elEcacy. A century since, according to Kalm, there was so 

 much faith in the virtues of the Dogwood, that " when the cattle fall 

 down in the spring, for want of strength, the people tie a branch of this 

 tree on their neck, thinking it will help thiAU ! " Altogether, and with- 

 out any joke — it is a valuable as well as ornamental little tree, — worthy 

 of a place in lawns and yards. Observing farmers have remarked that 

 the proper time to plant Indian corn is when the involucres of the Dog- 

 wood are first developed. There are several other species, with flowers 

 in large flat cymes, common in thickets. They all possess more or less 

 beauty, and will be foujid described in the systematic works. 



2. NYS'SA, L. Tupelo. 



[The name of a Water Xympli ; applied to this genus.] 



Flowers diceciously polygamous, clustered. Stamixate Flower with a 

 small 5-parted calyx and 5 -12, oftener 10 stamens inserted around a 

 disk in the bottom of the calyx. Pistillate Flower with a^ calyx 

 having a short repand truncate or minutely 5-toothed limb. Petals 

 very small and fleshy, deciduous or often wanting. Stamens 5-10, 

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

 down one side. Ovary 1-celled. Drupe ovoid or oblong, with a bony 

 and grooved or striate 1-celled and 1-seeded stone. Trees with small 

 greenish flowers, the staminate ones in a simple or compound dense 

 cluster of fascicles, the pistillate ones much larger, and either solitary 

 or in clusters of 2 - 8 ; appearing with the leaves. 

 1. N. multiflo'ra, IVang. Leaves oval and obovate, acute at each 

 end, often acuminate, entire ; fertile peduncles, mostly 3-flowered. 

 Many-flowered Nyssa. Sour Gum. Black Gum. Pepperidge. Tupelo. 



stem 30-60 or 70 feet high, and 1-2 feet in diameter ; branches numerous, horizon- 

 tally spreading and often a little drooping. Leaves 2-4 inches long, dark green and shin- 

 ing above, paler and pubescent beneath ; petioles half an inch to an inch long, often mar- 

 gined, conspicuously villous-ciliate. Staminate floivers pedicellate, 2-5 or 6 in a loos3 

 cluster, on a slender common peduncle aboutan'inch long. Fertile Jiower.< sessile, mostly 

 3 in a dense involucrate cluster (sometimes 2, or only 1), on a clavate common peduncle, 

 which at first is about half an inch — flnallj^ an inch to an inch and a half — in length. 

 Drupe elliptic, near half an inch long, bluish-black when mature. 



Moist woodlands and low grounds : throughout the United States. Fl. May -June. Fr. 

 September. 



Obs. The woody fibres of this tree are remarkably interlocked, so as 

 to render it very diflScult to split ; on which account it is much used for 

 making naves, or hubs, for carriage wheels, — and also hatters' blocks. 

 The younger trees, when growing solitary, have much symmetry — af- 

 fording a fine shade ; and in autumn the leaves add greatly to the pic- 

 turesque appearance of the country, by changing to a bright crimson 

 color. 



