TREES OF AMERICA. 97 



Island, and, indeed, in almost every part of 

 the Middle States, it is very abundant ; that 

 is, wherever there are mountains, for it does 

 not love low grounds. It is also a species 

 of laurel, and the name of it is the dwarf-rose 

 bay. The flowers are much larger than those 

 of the mountain-laurel, and shaped something 

 like a star-fish : of a deep rose-colour, with 

 yellow dots on the inside ; sometimes they 

 are perfectly white, but not often. It grows 

 generally about ten feet high ; but trees are 

 occasionally seen measuring eighteen or 

 twenty, and four or five inches thick. I have 

 not a picture to show you, but it is so beauti- 

 ful, with its green leaves and red flowers, that 

 it is worth taking a walk into the woods in 

 spring, just to look at it. The wood is not 

 as good as the laurel, and no use is made of it 

 that I know of." 



" Uncle Philip, is there no other laurel than 

 the two you have just told us of ? I have 

 heard that the sassafras is one of the same 

 kind of trees." 



" So it is ; and there is another still, called 

 the red bay. The sassafras, as you know, I 

 suppose, is a fine tall tree, forty or fifty feet 

 high, and more than that even, in some parts 



