XII. 1. THE SASSAFRAS TREE. 323 



feet high, and two feet in diameter, and in the Southern and 

 Western States, is said to attain a still loftier stature. " From 

 Boston to the banks of the Mississippi, and from the shores of 

 the ocean in Virginia to the remotest wilds of Upper Louisiana 

 beyond the Missouri, comprising an extent in each direction of 

 more than one thousand eight hundred miles, the sassafras is 

 sufficiently multiplied to be ranked among the most common 

 trees." — Mlchaux, II, 145. 



It is found in almost every part of Massachusetts, and seems 

 to flourish in almost every kind of soil. In the vicinity of Bos- 

 ton, in soil resting upon crumbled grauwacke, it attains larger 

 dimensions of diameter and height, than I have elsewhere ob- 

 served it. It is nowhere found very abundantly, but is usually 

 allowed to remain, out of regard for its medicinal properties, 

 and the beauty of its foliage and fruit, about fences, and on 

 the borders of fields, where it is most frequently seen. This 

 tree has the credit of having aided in the discovery of America, 

 as it is said to have been its strong fragrance, smelt by Colum- 

 bus, which encouraged him to persevere, and enabled him to 

 convince his mutinous crew that land was near. 



The sassafras never grows to the size of a tree of the first 

 class. One was growing in 1842, in West Cambridge, which 

 measured more than three feet through at the base, and rose, 

 without a limb, more than thirty feet, with a trunk very straight 

 and slightly diminished, above which it had a somewhat lofty 

 and broad head. It was nearly sixty feet high, and had been 

 long growing by itself. It was felled and its roots dug up, to 

 allow a stone ivall to run in a right line. Such pieces of barbar- 

 ism are still but too common. A tree so beautiful and lofty, 

 and of such rare dimensions, such an ornament to a bare hill- 

 side, sacrificed to the straightness of a wall ! 



The sassafras has been much cultivated in England as an 

 ornamental tree. It is usually propagated by seeds imported 

 from this country. These, as soon as received, are sown or put 

 in a rot-heap, as they sometimes remain two or three years in 

 the ground before they come up. It may be also propagated by 

 suckers which spring up in great numbers from the long creep- 

 ing roots of old trees. 



Several other species of sassafras are found in this country. 



