There are three small trees in Kew Gardens, the largest about 20 feet high, growing in a densely wooded part close to the Arboretum Nursery.
A tree growing in the garden at Harpton in Radnorshire, at an elevation of 700 feet above sea-level, was in 1905 274 feet high by 2 feet 8 inches in girth, The owner, Sir Herbert E. F. Lewis, Bart., who kindly sent us particulars, has not noticed during the last forty years any considerable increase in the size of this tree. Its leaves turn bright yellow in autumn.
Timber
The wood seems to be unknown in commerce, and is not mentioned by any of the English writers, but Sargent says it is very durable under water and used for keels of boats, and being extremely difficult to split, is also used for yokes, rollers, wheel-hubs, and pumps. Sections of it in Hough’s American Woods, Pt. I. No. 9, show a pale or reddish-brown wood of very close texture, somewhat resembling
sycamore in appearance.(H.J.E.)
NYSSA AQUATICA, Cotton Gum, Tupelo Gum
- Nyssa aquatica, Marshall, Arbust. Am. 96 (1785); Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1058 (ex parte) (1753); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. v. 83, t. 210 (1893), and Trees N. Amer. 711 (1905).
- Nyssa uniflora, Wangenheim, Nordam. Holz. 83, t. 27, f. 57 (1787).
- Nyssa denticulata, Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 446 (1789).
- Nyssa tomentosa, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 259 (1803).
- Nyssa angulisans, Michaux, loc. cit.
- Nyssa grandidentata, Michaux f., Hist. Arb. Am. ii. 252, t. 19 (1812); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii, 1319 (1838).
A tree, attaining in America 100 feet in height, with a trunk 12 feet in girth above the greatly enlarged base. Bark thick, longitudinally fissured, and roughened on the surface by small scales. Young shoots pubescent towards the tip, becoming glabrous below in summer. Leaves (Plate 199, Fig. 10) elliptical or ovate-oblong, base rounded or tapering, apex long-acuminate; margin entire or repand, ciliate, often with one to three or more triangular teeth, usually ending in a bristle; upper surface dark green, glabrous ; lower surface greyish in colour and with a scattered, fine pubescence; petioles more or less pubescent, 1 to 1½ inch or more in length.
Flowers on long, slender, pubescent peduncles: staminate flowers pedicellate in dense clusters, with a cup-shaped, obscurely five-toothed calyx and oblong short petals rounded at the apex ; pistillate flowers solitary, with long, tubular calyx, ovate minute spreading petals, and included stamens with small mostly fertile anthers. Fruit solitary, on long, drooping stalks, oblong, dark purple, about an inch long; stone obovate, rounded at the apex, pointed at the base, flattened, with about ten wing-like ridges.
