SASSAFEAS. 31 



of numerous parcels united together, the placentas becoming 

 confluent, and giving the appearance of the ovules being irregularly 

 dispersed over the whole surface. 



M. Myristica is described as a small tree in Jamaica where 

 it is cultivated, being only about 20 feet in height, but it grows to 

 50 or 60 feet in Lower Guinea * The other species are small 

 trees or shrubs in all of them the flowers are large, like those 

 of Unona unclulata, solitary and sweet-scented. They are charac- 

 terised by their three outer petals being large and spreading, 

 with crisped or waved edges, and the three inner ones heart- 

 shaped and erect, meeting together at their apices. The outer 

 petals of M. Myristica are of a bright yellow colour variegated 

 with purple spots, and the inner ones wliitish on the outside and 

 downy, but shining and pale yellow, with crimson spots inside. 

 The fruit of all the four species is perfectly smooth, yellow when 

 ripe, globular, varying in size from that of an orange to a large 

 melon, containing a number of seeds packed closely together with 

 great regularity in the midst of a quantity of pulp. The seeds of 

 M. Myristica contain a quantity of aromatic oil wdiich imparts to 

 them the odour and flavour of nutmegs, and as they likewise 

 possess the same kind of interior structure they have acquired the 

 vernacular nam.es above mentioned.f 



Sassafras. 



Sassafras officinale, Xees. Syst. Laurins, p. 488. AVoodv. Med. 

 Bot. t. 31 ; Bigelow, Amer. Med. Bot. t. 35 ; Stevenson & 

 Churchill, Med. ^Bot. iii., t. 126; Bentley & Trimen, Med. PL 

 t. 220. 



This was called Laiirus Sassafras by Linnaeus and is a small, 

 hardy, deciduous tree of the ]N'atura] Order Later acece, common in 

 the woods of the United States, extending from Canada to Florida 

 and Missouri. In the North it grows to the height of about 30 

 feet, but in the Central and Southern States it attains a height of 



* R. Brown, Observations on the herbarium collected by Christian Smith in 

 the vicinity of the Congo, p. 56. 



t Interesting information on the subject of nutmeg is given in the following 

 Works :— Crawfurd's Diet. Indian Islands, p. 304 ; AVallace's Malay 

 Archipelago, i. p. 452; Hooker's Journ. Bot., iv. p. 83 ; Collingwood, in Journ. 

 Lin. Soc. (Bot.), x. p. 45 ; Pharm. Journ., [1] ii. p. 516 ; Journ. de Pharm., 

 1864, p. 150; Royle's Mat. Med., p. 464. A good plate is in Roxb. PI. 

 Coromandel, t. 274, also \Yoodville Med. Bot. t. 238. 



