14 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



LAURACE^. 



base, orange-colored, introrse, four-celled, the cells superposed in pairs, the lower larger than the upper 

 opening from below upward by persistent lids, larger and nearer the margin in the anthers of the i 

 series of stamens than in the others ; in the female flower reduced to flattened ovate pointed slij 



■htly 



lobed dark orano-e-colored stipitate staminodia, or occasionally fertile and similar 



nly 



smalle 



r 



those of the staminate flower 



Ovary ovate, one-celled, light green, glabrous, nearly 



sessile in the short tube of the calyx, contracted into a slender elongated simple style gradually enlarged 

 above into a capitate obHque obscurely lobed stigma; ovule suspended from the apex of the cell, 

 anatropous. Fruit an oblong dark blue lustrous berry surrounded at the base by the enlarged and 



thickened obscurely six-lobed 



limb of the calyx raised 



much elongated scarlet 



stalk thickened above the middle ; pericarp thin and fleshy, adherent to the oblong pointed light bro 

 seed destitute of albumen ; testa thin, membranaceous, barely separable into two coats, the inner 



coat 



much thinner than the outer, dark chestnut-brown, and lustro 



Embryo erect, subglobose, fiUing the 



cavity of the seed ; cotyledons thick and fleshy ; radicle superior, turned toward the hilum, included 



between the cotyledons. 



The wood of Sassafras is soft, weak, brittle, and coarse-grained, although very durable when 

 placed in contact with the soil ; it contains numerous thin medullary rays and bands of three or four 

 rows of large open ducts which clearly mark the layers of annual growth ; it is aromatic and dull 



orange-brown, with thin Kght yellow sapwood composed 



of seven or eight layers of annual growth. 

 The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.5042, a cubic foot weighing 31.42 pounds. It is 

 largely used for fence-posts and rails, in the construction of light boats and ox-yokes, and in cooperage. 



The roots of Sassafras, and especially their bark, are a mild aromatic stimulant ; * and oil of 

 sassafras, used to perfume soap and other articles, is distilled from them.^ The pith of the young 

 branches infused with water furnishes a mucilage which has been used successfuUy as an emulsion in 

 febrile and inflammatory maladies,^ and in ophthalmic practice. Gumbo filet, a powder prepared from 

 the leaves by the Choctaw Indians of Louisiana, gives flavor and consistency to gumbo soup.* 



onfined to temperate eastern North America. It once inhabited the Arctic 



Sassaf 



IS 



Circle, and long existed in Europe with many forms 



.6 



North America during the cretaceous period 



the mid-continental plateau, where traces of what 



6 



it ranged far westward of its present home to 

 believed to be several species have been detected 



In the middle of the sixteenth century the French in Florida learned from the Indians the medical 

 value of the Sassafras,^ and in 1569 the first account and figure of this tree were published by the 



1 Kalm, Travels, English ed. i. 146, 340. — Woodville, Med. Bot. -with oil of i 



i. 91, t. 31 (Laurus). — Bigelow, Med. Bot. ii. 142, t. — Nees ab Sassafras oil, 



Esenbeck, PL Med. t. 131. — Descourtilz, Fl. Med. Antill. vii. 61, Camphor oil. 



t. 464. — Stephenson & Churchill, Med. Bot. iii. t. 126. — Hayne, a Johnson, 



Arzn. xii. t. 19. — Endlicher, Enchirid. 204. — Griffith, Med. Bot. ed. 16, 1338. 



distilling 



Man. Med. Bot. N. 



U. S. Dispells, 



651. 

 of& 



Schauer, Am. Jour, PJiarm. 1863, 53. — Porcher, Resources 



Proctor, Proc» Am. Pharm. 



Assoc. 1866, 217. — Fliickiger & Hanbury, Pharmacographia^ 483. 



Nat 



Med 



^ Robin, Voyages, iii. 361, 



^ Saporta, Origine Paleontologique des ArhreSy 223. — Zittel, 

 Handb. Palceontolog, ii. 495. 



* Lesquereux, Rep. U. S. Geolog. Surv. vi. 77 {Contrih. Foss. FL 



■Matheo 



t. 220. — Spons, Eticyclopcedia of the Industrial Arts, Manufactures, Western Territories, i.). 



a7id Raw Commercial Products, i. 823 ; ii. 1430. ^ " Des Espagnols de Sar 



2 The oil of sassafras is manufactured principally in Pennsylva- dire, de la Riviere Dauphine & de la Riviere de May, dtant presque 



nia, Virginia, and North Carolina by small operators who use the tons attaquds de fidvres caus^es par la mauvaise nourriture, & les 



most primitive domestic stills, extracting the oil in the crudest eaux crues & troubles qui ils buvoient, des Frangois leur apprirent 



manner from all parts of the tree except the leaves. It is traded k user du Sassafras, comme ils Tavoient vu pratiquer auxSauvages; 



by the manufacturers with local storekeepers, who collect and ils en coupoient la racine en petits morceaux, qu'ils faisoient boiiil- 



send it to dealers in large cities. The industry is a declining one, lir dans I'eau, ils buvoient de cette eau k jeun & k leurs repars, & 



synthetical oils now replacing Sassafras oil for ordinary uses ; and elle les gu^rit parfaitment.'* (Charlevoix, Hist> de la Nouvelle 



Sassafras oil is rarely found pure in commerce, being usually diluted France, i. 46.) 



