SASSAFRAS. 39 



"Brazilian or Orinoco Sassafras" is the aromatic bark of 

 Nectandra cymharum Xees. Lauriii. 305. Syn. Odea amara 

 Martius, a native of the woods of the Orinoco near San Fernando 

 de Atabapo, where it is called " Sassafras " ; it is also found in the 

 ancient forests of the Eio Xegro in Brazil. This tree is 100 feet 

 in height. Its branches and all its parts are smooth. Leaves 

 oblong-lanceolate, papery, shining above ; they and the peduncles 

 of the fruit, which are short at the base of the branches and new 

 shoots, are quite smooth. The cup of the fruit is large, with a 

 double edge. By making incisions in the trunk, an oil called 

 Aceite de Sassafras is obtained* which probably contains safrol. 

 A somewhat similar product, but in which it is not recorded 

 that safrol exists, is obtained by piercing the trunk of Oreodaphne 

 opifera I^ees, Laurin. 390. Syn. Odea opifera, Martius, a native 

 of the woods of Para and the Pdo Xegro. This species of 

 the genus is distinguished by its oblong, cuspidate leaves 

 tapering into the petiole, silky on I he under side; the panicles 

 are compact, divaricating, silky. Its oval shaped fruit is 

 succulent and imbricated in a deep, thick cup formed out of the 

 altered tube of the calyx. This fruit yields by distillation a 

 limpid, yellow volatile oil, differing in odour to that obtained from 

 the trunk and reminding of a mixture of orange peel and 

 rosemary. 



The so-called " Cayenne Sassafras " is derived hom Licaria 

 G-uianensis Aubl. Guian. i., p. 313 t. 121 (Syn. Dicypellmm 

 caryophyllatum Xees. Laur. 344). This tree is found in Brazil and 

 Guiana. Its wood is called " Bois de Eose " by the French 

 settlers in Cayenne. Its native name is Licari Kanali. Its leaves 

 are alternate, oblong, tapered to a very fine point, which is never- 

 theless bluntish, acute at the base, papery, smooth, netted on the 

 under side. The fruit is drupaceous, ovate, depressed at the apex. 

 The bark is odourous of cloves, with a hot, clove-like peppery taste 

 and powerful tonic properties. 



"Oriental Sassafras" is the produce of Cinnamomuni 

 Parthenoxylon, Meissner, and C. glanduliferum Meissner; the 

 former tree belonging to the forests of Penang, Sumatra and Java 

 {Kayu-gadis of the Malays), perhaps also in Tenasserim ; the 

 second in Xepal, Sikkim, Bhootan and Khasia, it is the " sassafras 

 * Hooker's Journ. of Botany, vii., p. 278. 



