Tupelo trees attain a height from seventy to a hundred feet, and a diameter of two to four feet above the swelled base. The general appearance of the bark suggests both yellow poplar and red gum. Trees have a habit of forking near the tops. The leaves are five or seven inches long, sometimes with smooth margins, and often with a few sharp points. Flowers appear in March and April, and fruit ripens early in Autumn. It is a dark purple, tough-skinned drupe, about an inch long. The wood weighs 32.37 pounds per cubic foot. It is soft, and has about three-fourths the strength and little more than half the stiffness of white oak. It is not well suited to places where strength and rigidity are required. The fibers are interwoven, making the wood difficult to split. The heart is brown, often nearly white; the sapwood is very thick; and the annual rings are not clearly defined, because of the similarity between the springwood and summerwood. The pores are small but numerous, and are scattered evenly through the whole annual ring. The wood of roots differs from that of the trunk more than is usual with hardwoods. It is very light, and has been long employed in the South as a substitute for cork as floats for fish nets. Tupelo is often logged with cypress. The two trees grow in close association in deep swamps. The butt cuts of tupelo are so heavy that they float deep, or even go to the bottom. It was formerly customary, and still is to some extent, to girdle trees whose trunks were to be floated to the mills. In the course of one season the standing trees dry sufficiently for the logs to float. At other times, trees are cut green, the logs are skidded and allowed to dry some months before they are rafted or floated to the mills. The sapwood is liable to decay, even in the brief period while the logs are on the skids. The wood may be protected against decay to some extent by smearing the ends of the logs with tar or some other substance which prevents the spores of decay-producing fungus from entering. The seasoning of tupelo was formerly a problem exceedingly vexatious to the lumberman. The wood is full of water, and warping was one of the troubles which was constantly encountered. Finally experience gained the mastery, and seasoning troubles are fewer now. Shrinkage of four or five per cent is not unusual in passing lumber from the green to dry state.