12 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



Sassafras. 



Sassafras sassu/fas — (Linn.) Karst. 



iiassafras officinale — Noes and Kberin. 



This tree is of the laurel family. Its range 

 of growth is through eastern Massachusetts, 

 southern Vermont, southern Ontario, central 

 Miehigan. southeastern Iowa, eastern Kansas, 

 Indian Territory and Arkansas; through the 

 South to Florida and the Brazo.- 

 river valley in Texas. It flourishes 

 remarkably well in Arkansas and 

 Indian Territory, reaching its great- 

 est development in those sections. 



In Vermont, New Hampshire, 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode 

 Island, New York, New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, 

 Virginia, West Virginia, North Car- 

 olina, South Carolina, Georgia, Flor- 

 ida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, 

 Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Illi- 

 nois, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, 

 Michigan, Ohio and Ontario, it is 

 called sassafras; in Florida it is 

 known by the name of saxifrax; in 

 Tennessee, saxifrax-tree; sassafac in 

 West Virginia, sassafrac in Dela- 

 ware. In the negro dialect of Louis- 

 iana it is called gumbo file; while 

 the Onondaga Indians of New York 

 knew it as wah-eh-uah-kas, which be- 

 ing interpreted means "smelling 

 stick. ' ' The so-called California 

 sassafras is not of this botany. 



Sassafras thrives best in rich. 

 Bandy loam. In the South it is often 

 found, with the persimmon, in 

 abandoned fields in the mulille dis- 

 tricts, frequently growing in thick- 

 ets, in the North it is usually a 

 mere shrub or dwarf tree, but far- 

 ther south it attains a height of 

 from forty to even one hundred and 

 twenty-five feet, with a diameter of 

 two or three feet. Trees over fifty 

 feet in height, however, are tlic ex- 

 ception rather than the rule. In 

 sh.'ipc it is rounded, with narrow. 

 flat head 



The bark of the young tree is 

 greyish-buff in color, streaked with 

 green. In old trees it is a dark, 

 reddish brown. The little branches 

 are always light in color, and peel 

 readily. 



The leaves are simple, alternate 

 and petioled ; ovate or obovato, the 

 apex of leaves and lobes being blunt or 

 slightly rounded; HinuseH, rounded; in color, 

 dark green, thick and shiny, becoming glab- 

 roHB and sprinkled with light dots. Three 

 distinct forms of leaves arc common to the 

 sassafras: the simple oval, the leaf with a 

 lobe on one side only, and the third with a 

 lobe on each aide of the central surface, all 

 of which are shown in the illustration. The 



TWENTIETH FAFEB. 



foliage has a thrifty, clean appearance. In 

 autumn it turns to delicate red and yellow 

 shades while the branchlets retain their 

 lirifjht, lustrous green f;ir into the winter. 



Thorcau says : 



"When 1 break off a twig of green-barked 

 sassafras, as I am going through the woods 

 in February, and smell it, 1 am stullcd to 



rVI'KAI, SASSAI-U.\S K()Iti:ST GROWTH. I.OWKR APPA- 

 I.ACIIIA.N l!A.\(!i:. KAS'I' IK.VNKSSKK. 



find it fragrant ;is in summer. It is an im- 

 portation of all the spices of Oriental sum- 

 mers into our New I'Ingland winti'r, very for- 

 eign to the HUdw and the oak leaves." 



An authority says the foliage of the sassa- 

 fras, more than that of any other tree except 

 the hor.se-elie^tnut, is conventional to a fault. 

 One is impressed with the similarity between 

 the leafage in old wood engravings by Be- 



wick, an English artist of the eighteenth 

 century, and that of the sassafras; both are 

 regular and decorative. 



The flowers are diceeious, yellowish-green, 

 and grow in conspicuous clusters, appearing 

 with the leaves in early spring. Their calyx 

 IS six-lobed; the stamens are nine in number. 

 The fruit ripens in September. It is small, 

 oval in shape, and one-seeded. In 

 color it is blue-black, growing upon 

 a reddish tlcshy stem. It never re- 

 mains long xipon a tree, for it is a 

 favorite food of birds, and they de- 

 vour it greedily as soon as it ma- 

 tures. 



The thick heartwood is of a dull 

 orange-brown color, while the sap- 

 wood is thin and light yellow. The 

 layers of annual growth are clearly 

 marked with three or four rows of 

 large open ducts; the medullary 

 rays are thin and numerous. The 

 wood is very coarse-grained, light 

 and brittle. It is not particularly 

 strong, but is exceedingly durable 

 when in contact with soil. It checks 

 somewhat in drying. The weight of 

 the seasoned wood is thirty-one 

 pounds to the cubic foot. 



Sassafras is employed in the man- 

 ufacture of pails, buckets, ox-yokes, 

 fence-posts, cooperage stock and 

 light skiffs, and latterly is being em- 

 ployed for house finish. 



The tree may always be identified 

 by the strong aromatic taste of not 

 only the roots, bark and twigs, but 

 :ilso of the leaves, which have the 

 pungent flavor of the old-fashioned 

 sassafras candy. The root, particu- 

 larly its bark, affords a powerful, 

 aromatic; stimulant. This oil of 

 sassafras is made largely in Penn- 

 sylvania and Virginia, and is an im- 

 portant article of commerce. The 

 little twigs are mucilaginous, and 

 their pith infused with water fur- 

 nishes a sticky preparation which is 

 used as a demulcent in inflammatory 

 .ind febrile conditions. 



The famous "gumbo" soup of 

 the South is prepared from ' ' gumbo 

 filot ' ' which the Choctaw Indians 

 of Jjouisiana make of the leaves. 



Sass'ifras was one of the first 

 American trees to be fully reported 

 in Europe. Monardcs, a Spanish 

 w ritcr, described it not more than fifty years 

 after Columbus' first voyage of discovery. 

 TliC credulous people of those times attributed 

 to its oil wonderful healing qualities, and re- 

 gariled it as n specific fur numerous ills. It 

 was in great demand everywhere on this ac- 

 count, and it formed a part of the first cargo 

 ever exported from the Massachusetts Bay- 

 Colony to the old world. 



