LAURACE^E LAUREL FAMILY 



Sassafras variifolium, (Salisb.) Ktze. 



Greenish-yellow Sassafras Tree, 



Ague Tree, 



April-May Cinnamon Wood, 



Smelling Stick, 

 Saloop. 



Sassafras: the popular Spanish name. 



Variifolium: Latin to signify the variable form of the leaf. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: groves. 



THE TREE: sometimes fifteen feet high, the bark rough 

 in irregular ridges, aromatic; the young twigs yellowish- 

 green becoming hairless. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; persistent; oval or mitten shaped 

 or three-lobed to about the middle, and often as wide as 

 long; obtuse at the apex; narrowed at the base; petioled; 

 entire; pinnately veined. The twigs and foliage all very 

 mucilaginous. 



THE FLOWERS: in corymbed racemes, appearing with the 

 leaves, staminate and pistillate; the sterile kind with nine 

 stamens, arranged in three rows; the fertile with six 

 stamens. 



THE FRUIT: an oblong, blue drupe. 



A large or small tree, as the environment may dictate, 

 with rough bark irregularly ridged, and yellowish-green 

 twigs. It has two easy marks of distinction the one, 

 the "mitten" like leaves and the other, the aromatic taste, 

 particularly of the young twigs. This taste is due to the 

 presence of an oil, which is widely used as flavouring, and 

 is also valuable medicinally. 



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