LAURUS SASSAFRAS, ORD. XL. Oleracee, | 675 
Class Enneandria. Ord. Monogynia. L. Gen. Plant. 508. 
Ess...Gen. Ch.. Cal. 0... Cor. calycina, 6-partita. Nectarium 
glandulis 3, bisetis, germen cingentibus, Filamenta interiora 
glandulifera. Drupa 1-sperma, 
Sp. Ch. _L. fol. trilobis integrisque. 
if 
THE Sassafras tree rises sometimes to the height of twenty or 
thirty feet,* and is about twelve or fifteen inches in diameter, but 
it is commonly of much less growth, and is divided towards the 
top into several crooked branches: the bark of the young shoots 
is smooth and green, of the old trunks it is rough, furrowed, and 
of a light ash colour: the leaves vary both in form and size, some 
being oval and entire, others cut into two or three lobes; they are 
all of-a-pale=greeh colour; vemed, downy on the under: Side;-and 
placed alternately upon long footstalks: the flowers are produced 
in pendent spikes or parities which spring from the extremities 
of the shoots of the preceding year ; they appear in May and June, 
and are generally male and female upon different trees: the corolla 
is divided into six leaves, which are narrow, convex, and of a dingy 
yellow colour: the male flowers have nine * filaments, crowned with 
round antherz ; the bractez are linear, and placed at the base of 
the pedicles ; there is no calyx, and the berries produced by the 
female flowers are similar in shape and colour” to those of the cin- 
namon.—See plate. 
‘The Sassafras tree is a native of North America, ‘and appears to 
* Vide Marshall’s Arbustrum Americanum, p. 75. 
* Miller says eight, but in the specimen figured, which was procured froma male 
tree in the King’s garden at Kew, nine stamina were observed in - the flowers. 
> Marshall, 1. c. 
— G. Piso Monardis descriptioni circa lignum Sassafras non acquiescendum 
esse ait, siquidem affirmat Sassafras Florida lignim decorticatum vix ullius dig- 
nitatis esse, cim Brasiliense eximix dignitatis & virtutis habeatur, atque a cortice 
liberatum in aliquot annos immune servatur.”’ Vide Raii Hist. p- 1569. 
