Louisiana, is probably only a variety of Nyssa sylvatica, Marshall; and no trees referable without doubt to it are known to us in England. Nyssa sylvatica, Marshall, and Nyssa aquatica, Marshall, occur rarely in cultivation in England.
NYSSA SYLVATICA, Tupelo, Pepperidge, Black Gum
- Nyssa sylvatica, Marshall, Arbust. Am. 97 (1785); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. v. 75, t. 217 (1893), and Trees N. Amer. 707 (1905).
- Nyssa multiflora, Wangenheim, Nordam. Holz. 46, t. 16, f. 39 (1787).
- Nyssa villosa, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 258 (1803); Loudon, Arb. et 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, ¼ 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, ⅓ to ⅔ 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 1½ inch long by ⅝ inch broad, on petioles ⅛ 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 Nyssa aguatica, with leaves grey and pubescent all over the under surface, and with one or two teeth often on the margin. Nyssa sinensis, which resembles in foliage Nyssa sylvatica, is distinguished by the appressed pubescence of the shoots.
In winter Nyssa sylvatica (Plate 200, Fig. 5) shows the following characters:—
