Michaux states that it endures the climate of Paris, and does not exact in Europe as moist a soil as it constantly requires in the United States. (A.H.)
Timber
According to Holroyd,[1] it has only recently been possible to market the timber of this tree, and under a fictitious name, so great has been the prejudice against this and others known as gums. Formerly when lands bearing tupelo and cypress were logged, the cypress alone was taken, and tupelo trees from 2 to 3 feet in diameter were left, because the lumbermen considered them to be worthless. At present, however, tupelo timber is extensively cut in Alabama, near Mobile, as well as in Southern and Central Louisiana. The best grades closely resemble the Yellow Poplar (Liriodendron). The wood has a fine uniform texture, is moderately hard and strong, not elastic, but very tough and hard to split, and easy to work with tools. It is not durable in contact with the ground, and requires much care in seasoning. It is now extensively used for house flooring and indoor finish. Mr. Weale informs me that it has a tendency to warp and split which cannot be prevented by any known process of seasoning; and only a small quantity has as yet been imported to England, in the form of boards, which are worth from Is. 9d. to 2s. per cubic foot, and are used by the makers of cheap furniture. But he thinks that if it was sent in boards as well planed as those of the so-called Hazel Pine, it would be more attractive, and its consumption would increase. (H.J.E.)
NYSSA SINENSIS, Chinese Tupelo
- Nyssa sinensis, Oliver, in Hooker, Icon. Plant. t. 1964 (1891).
A tree, attaining in China 4o feet in height. Young shoots covered with a dense appressed white short pubescence, retained in the second year. Leaves (Plate 199, Fig. 1) elliptical, base tapering, apex acuminate, margin entire and ciliate; upper surface dull, dark green, and glabrous except for some slight pubescence on the midrib towards the base; lower surface light green, shining, pilose on the midrib and chief veins and occasionally on the veinlets; petiole, ¼ to ⅜ inch long, pilose.
Flowers, on long slender axillary peduncles, pedicellate, crowded in racemose clusters. Staminate flowers with a minute calyx, narrow oblong petals, and five to ten stamens on a fleshy disc. Pistillate flowers imperfectly known, but with bifid style and glabrous ovary. Fruit in clusters of about three, on short pedicels at the ends of long (two to three inches) erect or ascending pubescent peduncles; oblong, bluish, 3 inch long; flesh scanty; stone with ten inconspicuous longitudinal ribs.
This is a rare tree, occurring in mountain woods in Central China, in the western part of Hupeh, and on the Lushan Mountains, near Kiukiang, in Kiangsi.[2] It was discovered by me in 1888, and was subsequently found by Mr. E.H. Wilson, who sent home seed to Messrs. Veitch in 1902, from which a single plant has been raised at Coombe Wood, where it is perfectly hardy so far. (A.H.)
