TUPELO. 
21 
Such are the most important uses of this wood, which are equally well 
subserved by that of the Tupelo. Both species support the temperature 
of Paris, but they succeed better a few degrees further south. 
PLATE CX. 
A branch with leaves and fruit of the natural size. Fig. 1 , A stone separated 
frpm the pulp. 
TUPELO. 
Nyssa aquatica. N.foliis ovalibus, integerrimis ; pedunculis femineis biforis ; 
drupa brevi, oboroata ; nuce striata. 
The Tupelo begins to appear in the lower part of New Hampshire, 
where the climate is tempered by the vicinity of the sea, but it is most 
abundant in the southern parts of New York, Hew Jersey and Pennsyl- 
vania. It is called indiscriminately Tupelo, Gum Tree, Sour Gum, and 
Peperidge ; names of whose origin and meaning I am ignorant. The first 
of these denominations is the most common, the second is wholly misap- 
plied, as no self-condensing fluid distils from the tree, and the third is used 
only by the descendants of the Dutch settlers in the neighborhood of New 
York. 
The Tupelo grows only in wet grounds ; in New Jersey it is constantly 
seen on the borders of the swamps with the Sweet Gum, the Swamp White 
Oak, the Chesnut White Oak and the White Elm. It rarely exceeds 40 
or 45 feet in height, and its limbs, which spring at 5 or 6 feet from the 
ground, affect a horizontal direction. I have remarked that the shoots of 
the two preceding years are commonly simple, and widely divergent from 
the branches. The trunk is of an uniform size from its base : while it is 
less than 10 inches in diameter the bark is not remarkable, but on full- 
grown and vigorous stocks it is thick, deeply furrowed, and, unlike the 
