412 DECIDUOUS TREES. 



the soil is rich and warm, in our woods, and by road-sides, it is 

 certainly the most neglected, considering the rare beauty of its 

 foliage, of all our native trees. Its qualities are peculiarly those 

 which adapt it to the embellishment of small pleasure-grounds. 

 The most aromatic tree of the woods, it is also one of the most 

 suggestive, by its umbelliferous form and sunny expression, of the 

 warmth of those southern climates in which the other members of 

 the laurel family flourish. Though it never becomes more than a 

 middle-sized tree, the deep furrows of its warm brown bark, the 

 angular ruggedness of its branches, and the flattened form and 

 horizontal shadows of its head, give it an air of age and dignity 

 unusual in trees of its size ; while the pure color, abundance, 

 and fine-cut outline of its leaves, add a refined expression during 

 its period of foliage. The young wood is smooth, and of a beau- 

 tiful green color. The leaves come late, and drop with the first 

 frosts, but their autumn colors are among the purest, and occa- 

 sionally the most brilliant : oftenest a bright lemon yellow, but not 

 seldom spangled with red, and some- 

 1 3 I times an entire mass of soft crimson. 



The leaves vary in form on the same 

 tree, as will be seen by the engraving, 

 Fig. 131, some being entire and pointed- 

 elliptical in form, and others three and 

 two-lobed. They are from four to six 

 inches long, of smooth outline, soft tex- 

 ture, and warm green color. The fo- 

 liage breaks into softly-rounded hori- 

 zontal layers, drooping on the exterior 

 to catch and reflect the sun* so that 

 they present to the eye broader and warmer masses of light than 

 most trees of similar size. Grown thriftily, in open grounds, 

 the sassafras is one of the most, if not the most, elegant small 

 tree of the north. Fig. 130 gives a tolerable idea of the sassafras 

 as a mature tree, but is less umbrella-formed than the usual type. 

 Figs. 57 and 58, page 260, show some characteristic forms of the 

 sassafras, grown in woods, and in open ground. But no engraving 

 will do justice to the pleasing lights and soft outline of the tree, 



