CHAP. XCIII. LAURA‘CER. LAU/RUS. 1301 
introduced in 1821. The leaves are alternate, petiolated, of a yel-. 
lowish or apple green on the upper side, and very glaucous on the 
under, with the three nerves uniting a little above the insertion of the 
petiole, and terminating short of the point of the leaf. The young shoots 
are axillary, and come out from among the flowers, and are furnished 
with several membranaceous slightly coloured scales, or a sort of sti- 
pules, which are very deciduous. It is rather tender; but, from the lo- 
cality, where it is indigenous, it would probably succeed with very little 
protection against a conservative wall. 
L. fee‘tens Ait., L. madeirénsis Lam., Pérsea foe‘tens Spreng., is a native 
of Madeira, and the Canary Islands, introduced in 1760, and producing its 
greenish yellow flowers from March to October. In its native country it 
forms a small tree 20ft. high; but in British gardens it is commonly kept 
in a green-house, or in a cold-pit. The plant, however, in the Horticultural 
Society’s Garden, has stood out as abush since 1831, and is now upwards of 
4ft. high. There can be little doubt that this, and the other species enu- 
merated as half-hardy, would stand against a wall with very little protection. 
L. M@rrha Lour. is a native of China, which has stood against a wall in the 
Horticultural Society’s Garden since 1832. It is generally injured more or 
less when the winters are severe ; but it always springs up again, and grows 
vigorously during summer. 
indica L. is an evergreen tree, with noble foliage, which lives and 
attains a considerable size in our conservatories and green-houses ; and 
there can be little doubt that in the south of England it would live against a conservative wall, at 
least as well as the orange and the lemon. 
C. Leaves deciduous. 
* 5. L. Sa’ssarras. The Sassafras Laurel, or Sassafras Tree. 
Identification. Lin. Hort. Cliff., 154., Gron. Virg., 46. ; Kalm It., 2. p. 270.454. ; Mill. Dict., No. 7. 5 
Trew. Ehret, t. 59, 60. ; Willd. Sp. Pl., 2. p. 485.; Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836. : 
Synonymes. C6rnus mas odorata, folio trifido, margine plano, Sassafras dicta, Pluk. Alm., 120, t. 222 
f.6., Catesb. Car., \.p. 55. t.55.. Seligm. Av. Ic., 2. t.10.; Sassafras arbor, ex Florida, ficulneo 
folio, Bauh. Pin., 431. ; Sdssafras sp. C.G. Nees Von Esenbeck ; Pérsea Sdssafras Spreng. ; Laurier 
Sassafras, Fr. ; Sassafras Lorbeer, Ger. 
Engravings. Trew Ehret, t.59, 60.; Blackw. Herb., t.267.; Giesecke Ic., fasc.1. No.9.; Pluk. 
Alm., t. 222. f.6.; Catesb Car., 1. t. 55. ; Seligm. Av. Ic., 2. t. 10. ; and plates in our last Volume. 
Spec. Char., §c. Sexes diccious. Habit arborescent. Both leaves and 
flowers are produced from the same buds. Buds, younger branches, and 
the under surface of the leaves, pubescent. Leaves entire, or with 2—3 
lobes. Veins prominent on the under side. Flowers in corymbose con- 
glomerate racemes. Anthers with 4 unequal cells. In the female flower, 
additionally to the pistil, are 6 gland-like bodies, like those in the male 
flowers. (Nutt. Gen., i. p. 259.) A deciduous tree, from 40 ft. to 50 ft. 
high. A native of North America. Introduced in 1633, and flowering in 
April and May. 
Varieties. Nuttall states (Gen. § Cat. N. A. P.) that the inhabitants of North 
and South Carolina distinguished two kinds of sassafras, the red and the 
white, calling the latter, also, the smooth. The red he identifies with the 
L,, subgenus Euésmus Nutt., Séssafras L.; and the white or smooth he con- 
siders a species belonging to the same subgenus, which he calls L. E. albida 
Nutt., and of which he has adduced the following characteristics. Its buds 
and younger branches are smooth and glaucous; its leaves are every where 
glabrous and thin, and the veins are obsolete on the under surface; the 
petiole is longer. He had not seen it in flower. The root is much more 
strongly camphorated than the root of the red sort (L. Sédssafras), and is 
nearly white. This kind is better calculated to answer as a substitute for 
ochra (Hibiscus esculéntus) than the L. Séssafras, from its buds and young 
branches being much more mucilaginous. It is abundant in North and 
South Carolina, from the Catawba Mountains to the east bank of the 
Santee, growing with L. Sassafras, which, in North Carolina, is less abun- 
dant. (Nut. Gen., i. p. 259, 260.) 
Description, §c. The sassafras tree often grows, even in England, to the 
height of 40 ft. or 50 ft. (See plate of the tree at Syon, in our last Volume.) 
The leaves, which vary very much in size and shape, are covered, when they 
first appear, with a soft woolly down; they are generally deeply lobed, on 
long footstalks, and of a pale green; they fall off early in autumn, The 
flowers are of a greenish yellow, and but slightly odoriferous ; the berries 
are oval, of a bright but deep blue, and contained in small dark ‘red cups, 
4Q 4 
