198 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



inches in diameter it is reddish and of a closer grain. It is not, 

 however, in these respects to be compared with the oak and hickory. 

 Experience shows, that this wood, stript of its bark, resists for a 

 considerable period the progress of decay ; and it is on this 

 account employed for the posts and rails of rural fence. It is 

 also sometimes used for the joints and rafters in houses built of 

 wood. It is said to be secure from the attack of worms : this 

 advantage is attributed to its odor which it preserves as long as 

 it is sheltered from the sun and rain. Bedsteads made of it are 

 said to be never infested with insects. But for these purposes 

 the sassafras wood is not in habitual use, and is only occasionally 

 employed. For fuel, it is held in little esteem, and it is only in 

 the cities of the Southern States, which are not, like those of the 

 north, abundantly furnished with fuel, that it is brought into the 

 market : it is considered as wood of the third quality. Its bark 

 contains a considerable portion of air, and snaps while burning 

 like that of the chesnut. 



The medicinal virtues of the sassafras are so well proved, that 

 during more than two hundred years, since its first introduction 

 into materia medica, it has maintained the reputation of an 

 excellent sudorific, which may be advantageously employed in 

 cutaneous affections, in chronic rheumatism, and in siphilitic 

 diseases of long standing. In the last case it is always joined 

 with lignum vitse and sarsaparilla. The wood is slightly aromatic 

 and somewhat acrimonious depending on a resin and an essential 

 oil, but the smell and taste which are peculiar to the vegetable 

 are more sensible in the young branches, and incomparably more 

 so in the bark of the roots ; this part of the tree therefore should 

 always be preferred, for the wood appears to contain but a small 

 degree of the qualities assigned it, and even this it loses after 

 being long kept. From the bark of the roots, which is thick and 

 sanguineous, the greatest quantity of essential oil is extracted : 

 this oil, after long exposure to the cold, is said to deposit very 

 beautiful crystals. The flowers of this tree when fresh have 

 likewise a weak aromatic odor. A great number of people in 

 the United States consider them as stomachic and efficacious in 

 purifying the blood ; and for this purpose, during a fortnight in 



