With advancing years the tupelo loses the symmetry of its youth. The lower branches droop dejectedly. The top is likely to die. When the wreck blows over it often shows a hollow butt, for the wood, though tough, is soft and quick to decay. Where the vitality of the tree is low, agencies of deterioration are quick to follow up their advantage. Wood-destroying fungi in the soil rot the trunk off in an incredibly short time. An artist studying the expression of trees in winter will look in vain for a more melancholy figure than an aged tupelo, smitten by untoward fates—the very King Lear of the forest.
In the ponds of the pine barrens in the Carolinas a two flowered tupelo is found, variety biflora. It is smaller than the parent species, and has a much swollen base, with large roots that hump themselves out of the water. Its leaves are smaller than those the tupelo bears in the North.
The Ogeechee Lime, or Sour Tupelo (Nyssa Ogeche, Marsh.), grows in the river swamps that line the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida. It takes its name from the Ogeechee Valley, which is the centre of its limited range. The trees are small, with bushy tops and hoary grey twigs, which when young are coated with silky red tomentum. The leaves are 4 to 6 inches long, oval, and firm in texture. The tree is a striking
figure when laden with its red fruits, about the size and shape of pecan nuts. They hang in profuse clusters from August till late autumn, long after they are ripe and the leaves are fallen. These juicy fruits are sour, and make excellent preserves. It must be difficult business to get them, for the trees stand in water. Nevertheless, the demand for them is good, and justifies the necessary exertion.
The Cotton Gum (Nyssa Marsh.) is the large tupelo of the swamps, a tree with an unusually broad base, an abundance of corky roots, and a superb pyramidal crown. Trunks 3 to 4 feet in diameter and 8o to I on feet high are not at all unusual. White cottony down is noticeable throughout the treetop as spring growth begins. The young leaves divest themselves of this covering as they mature, except as a lining. These leaves are large, oval, often remotely toothed or lobed. The fruit is purple, and hangs on long, flexible stalks among the gay-coloured leaves in autumn. It has not the popularity of the Ogeechee limes, for the flesh is thin and the skin is tough. The lumber is largely used for fruit crates, broom handles and other cheap articles. The tree is seen at its best in the cypress swamps of Louisiana and Texas.