38 ODOROGRAPHIA. 



(Laurin. 328) ; trees growing in the woods of Tabatinga in the 

 Province of Eio Xegro, Brazil. Its leaves are oblong or elliptical, 

 tapering to a narrow point, leathery or papery, smooth, reticulated, 

 of the same colour on both sides. Peduncles axillary, .short. The 

 cup of the fruit is very large and spongy. The fruit, in the early 

 months of the year, drop from their cups to the ground and are 

 collected by the natives, cleaned of their flesh and pericarp and 

 dried at a gentle heat. Their odour is between that of sassafras 

 and nutmeg ; that of the Minor has been compared to Balsam 

 Peru. The odour of the bark has been compared to a mixture of 

 cloves and fennel, also as being like sassafras when fresh. 



"Australian Sassafras" is the name applied in Australia to 

 the bark of Atherosjjerma moschata, Labillardiere, a tree indigenous 

 in Australia and Tasmania, found also in Chili. It is the only species 

 of the genus here known. It is an" aromatic tree with four- 

 cornered branches, opposite leaves and pedicellate axillary solitary 

 flowers, with two deciduous bracteoles. The flowers are monoecious. 

 The male flower is campanulate, with a very short tube and eight 

 lobes ; and the ten to twelve fertile stamens are mixed with scale- 

 shaped barren ones. The calyx of the female flower is the same 

 as in the male ; the ovaries numerous, sessile and distinct, with 

 one cell and one ovule. The nuts are aromatic and are called 

 " Plume Xutmegs." 



" New South Wales Sassafras" is the bark of Boryidliora 

 Sassafras, which belongs to the Order AtherosiJermacece and is 

 somewhat nearly related to the Sassafras of Tasmania above- 

 mentioned. It differs however in having the anthers prolonged 

 into a tail-like process. D. sassafra.s is the only species of its 

 genus, it grows to a fine symmetrical pyramidal tree of 60 or 100 

 feet in height, with a diameter of 2 or 3 feet in the trunk, and 

 is furnisned with opposite, smooth, lanceolate or elliptical toothed 

 leaves. The flowers are smaU, perfect and three together, 

 supported on axillary peduncles shorter than the leaves, and 

 enveloped by tw^o silky bractes, each with a calyx-border of six 

 divisions and twelve stamens, six fertile and six sterile ; the 

 fertile ones having the anthers prolonged into a tail. The ovaries 

 are numerous and become one-seeded nuts, the styles remaining 

 attached to the ripe fruits in the form of feathery awns. The 

 leaves, bark and wood emit an agreeable aromatic odour. 



