XII. 1. THE SASSAFRAS TREE. 319 



The stamens are as numerous as the divisions of the flower- 

 cup, and opposite them, or two, three, four, five or six times as 

 numerous. When there are more than three rows, the inner 

 ones are sterile. The anthers open by valves, which curve up- 

 wards. The fruit is a one-seeded berry or a drupe, usually 

 supported by a thickened, club-shaped stalk. 



The only genera found in this State, are the Sassafras and 

 the Spice Bush or Fever Bush, Benzoin; the former a tree, the 

 latter a shrub. Both have six-parted yellowish flowers with 

 nine stamens, which are all fertile in the male flowers ; the fe- 

 male, six sterile ones. 



The Sassafras has its anthers opening with four valves, and 

 its fruit borne on a stem thickened and fleshy at the extremity. 

 The Spice Bush has anthers with only two valves, and its 

 fruit-stalk not fleshy at the extremity. 



XII. 1. THE SASSAFRAS TREE. SA'SSAFRAS 

 OFFICINALE. Nees Yon Esenbeck. 



Figured in Audubon's Birds, II, Plate 144 ; in Michaux, Sylva, Plate 81 ; 

 Bigelow's Medical Botany, II, Plate 35. 



The sassafras, in this State, rarely reaches thirty feet in height 

 and a foot in diameter. I have, however, measured some which 

 were forty or fifty feet high and nearly two feet in diameter. 

 The old tree is a striking but not a beautiful object, at least 

 when the trunk is visible, which is rarely erect, but usually 

 bending upwards, and sometimes crooked. The bark, on old 

 stems, is of a reddish ash color, deeply and irregularly cracked, 

 with the sides of the furrows striated with black and gray 

 lines, showing the annual layers. The color of the interior 

 of the bark is dark red, like some kinds of cinnamon. The 

 branches are numerous, bare and crooked. The young tree is 

 often beautiful, from the rich color of the luxuriant foliage and 

 the recent shoots; and on young and old trees, the head is 

 broad, round and finely tufted. The living bark is commonly 

 free from most kinds of lichens, but an occasional dead branch 

 will be found covered with Lecanoras and Lecideas, and patches 

 of common and golden-eyed Parmelias. On young trees, the 



