LAURACEAE. 71 
SASSAFRAS. Sassafras. 
(Family Lauraceae). 
Aromatic tree or often forming 
dense masses of shrubbery: de- 
ciduous. Twigs green, glabres- 
cent, rounded, moderate, often 
branching the first year. Pith 
moderate, somewhat 5-sided, white, 
continuous. Buds usually § soli- 
tary, ovoid, sessile, subglobose; 
scales about 4 fleshy rather keeled, 
the end-bud somewhat larger. 
Leaf-scars small, half-round or 
crescent-shaped, somewhat raised: 
bundle-trace a transverse line 
more or less broken into 3: stipule- 
sears lacking. 
The sassafras is one of the most 
easily recognized native trees in 
winter. Its rough bark, once 
known, is not easily forgotten: 
and its green mucilaginous spicy 
twigs are often corymbosely 
branched above the situation of the uppermost juncture or 
winter-node—marked by scars corresponding to the scales of 
the last winter bud. Its winter-characters are discussed by 
Blakeslee & Jarvis, 333, 476, pl.; Brendel, 30-32, pl. 3; Hitch- 
cock (1), 5; Otis, 138; Schneider, f. 143. 
Though only one Sassafras is known at present, 25 North 
American fossil species of the genus are included in Knowl- 
ton’s catalogue of Cretaceous and Tertiary fossils published 
as Bulletin 152 of the United States Geological Survey. Les- 
quereux, however, in his Tertiary Flora questions all but two. 
Twigs not glaucous. S. variifolium. 
Twigs glaucous. S. variifolium albidum. 
