80 ILLICIUM FLORIDANUM, 
to Mr. Collinson.” Mr. Bartram’s description of it, 
as it appears in his journal up the river St. John, 
published by Dr. Stork, in his account of Hast 
Florida, is as follows. “Near here my son found 
a lovely, sweet tree, with leaves like the sweet 
bay, which smelled like Sassafras, and produces 
a strange kind of seed-pop; but all the seed was 
shed. ‘The severe frost had not hurt it ;—some 
of them grow nearly twenty feet high, a charming 
bright evergreen aromatic.”’*. 
Of the medicinal properties of this shrub, I-am 
unable to speak with the certainty, which might 
have attended an extensive number of trials, made 
with the bark of full grown specimens. From 
the evidence afforded by the bark and leaves of a 
greenhouse specimen, and by the analogy of other 
species, and similar trees, I should not feel much 
hesitation in attributing to the Illicium the prop- 
erties of a tonic-stimulant and diaphoretic. I have 
at least satisfied myself that the bark of a twig, 
and three or four of the leaves, produce no un- 
- pleasant consequence. Its bitter taste and aro- 
matic quality point out its analogy to Cascarilla, 
Canella, Sassafras, and other aromatic barks, 
which are regularly consumed in the shops. Its 
* It is very possible the above description og have been in- 
tended for Illicium parviflorum. 
