FOREST TREES. 219 



elders, very hard, but owing to large pith, only valuable for a 

 few purposes. Common in California and southward, also in 

 Oregon and Washington Territory, also in the valleys through- 

 out the Rocky Mountain regions. The European Elder {S. race- 

 mosa) is also common in the Rocky Mountains, and eastward 

 in our more Northei-n States, in high,, rocky situations, but the 

 Eastern form is known as var. pubens, Michx. Our most com- 

 mon species is the Black-Berried Elder {S. Canadensis), the fruit 

 of which is extensively used for making a kind of wine or 

 cordial. There are several ornamental varieties in cultivation, 

 one with golden variegated leaves, another with silver variegat- 

 ed, also a cut-leaved, and one with double wliite flowers. 



SAPIKDUS, Liuu. — Soajj-Berry. 



A genus of a dozen or more species of evergreen trees, prin- 

 cipally tropical, noted for the saponaceous properties of the 

 pulp {aril), surrounding the seeds of some of the species. This 

 substance is used as a substitute for soap in South America, 

 and is said to lather quite freely in water. The flowers are 

 produced in axillary or terminal racemes or panicles. Leaves 

 abruptly pinnate. Seeds horny. Two species inhabit our south- 

 em borders, 



Sapindns margiuatns, Willd. — Soap-Berry. — Leaflets nine to 

 eighteen, opposite or alternate, ovate-lanceolate, unequal-sided, 

 strongly veined above ; panicles large, and dense flowered. 

 Flowers wliite. Fruit globose. A tree from twenty to forty 

 feet high from Georgia to Florida, and near the Coast westwai'd 

 to Southern Arizona, also in Mexico. 



S. Saponaria, L. — Soap-Berry. — A common tree in the West 

 Indies, and said to be found sparingly in Southern Florida. The 

 fruit known as Indian soap, they are as large as cherries, and 

 the nut-like seed shining black, and were formally much used 

 in England for buttons, sometimes being tipped with silver. 



SASSAFRAS, Nees. — Sassafras. 



A genus of the Lauraceoi or Laurel Family, and still classed 

 in many botanical works under the generic name of Laurus. A 

 well known tree with small greenish or whitish flowers in 

 clustered racemes, appearing before the leaves. We have only 

 one species, the 



Sassafras officinale, Nees. — Sassafras.— Leaves deciduous, ovate 

 entire, or two to three-lobed, smooth or pubescent, exceedingly 



