DENDROLOGY. 



199 



the spring, they drink an infusion of them with a little sugar, in 

 the manner of tea. The dried leaves and the young branches 

 contain a mucilaginous principle nearly resembling that of the 

 ochro. They are used by some people to thicken their pottage. 

 An agreeable beverage may be made by boiling the young shoots 

 in water, to which a certain quantity of molasses is added, and 

 the whole is left to ferment : this beer is considered as a very 

 salutary drink during the summer. Mucilage of sassafras pith 

 is peculiarly mild and lubricating, and has been used with much 

 benefit in dysentery and catarrh, and particularly as a lotion in 

 the inflammatory stages of the ophthalmia. But except as a 

 diaphoretic the powers of sassafras are very doubtful. It certainly 

 has no antisyphilitic properties. 



LIQUIDAMBAR. 



Moncecia Polyandria. Linn. Amentacese. Juss. Astringent, tonic, emollient. 



Sweet Gum. Liquid 'amh a r styraciflua. 



No tree has hitherto been 

 found in North America so 

 extensively diffused as the 

 Sweet Gum. On the sea 

 shore it is first seen towards 

 the north- east, between 

 Portsmouth and Boston, in 

 the latitude of 43, and is 

 found as far as Mexico 

 towards the south-west: 

 from the coast of Virginia 

 it extends westward to the 

 river Illinois, thus spreading 

 over more than two-thirds 

 of the ancient territory of 

 the United States, together 

 with the Floridas, and Upper 



PLATE LI. 



Fig.]. A leaf. Fig. 2. The fruit. 



