Sassafras 



519 



The trees reported by Loudon to be growing in his time at Syon and at 

 Croome cannot now be found. 



Medicinal Properties 



An interesting article on this tree by Prof. Sargent, with a figure of the trunk of 

 an old one on Long Island showing the peculiar bark, is given in Garden and Forest, 

 vii. 215; and from this I take the following : 



The Sassafras is one of the most interesting trees of eastern North America. 

 The last survivor of a race which at an earlier period of the earth's history was 

 common to the two hemispheres, it is the only tree in a large family which has been 

 able to maintain itself in a region of severe winter cold. Towards the middle of the 

 sixteenth century the French in Florida heard from the Indians wonderful accounts 

 of the curative properties of a tree which they called Pavame, and which for no obvious 

 reasons the Europeans called Sassafras. The tree and its virtues were first described 

 by the Spanish physician, Nicholas Monardes, in his Natural History of the New 

 World, published in Seville in 1569. 



The reputation of the roots and wood as a sovereign cure for most human 

 maladies soon spread through Europe, and extraordinary efforts were made to 

 procure them. To collect Sassafras was one of the objects of the English expedition 

 which landed in Massachusetts in 1602, and eight years later Sassafras is mentioned 

 among the articles to be sent home, in the instructions of the English Government 

 to the officers of the young colony in Virginia. 



For nearly two centuries the reputation of Sassafras was maintained, and many 

 medical treatises have extolled its virtues, though now it is generally recognised as 

 simply a mild aromatic stimulant. Recently the thick pith of the young branches 

 has been found to yield a mucilage useful to oculists, as it can be combined with 

 alcohol and subacetate of lead without causing their precipitation. The oil of 

 Sassafras, obtained from the wood and roots by distillation, is used to perfume soap 

 and other articles ; and perhaps after all the most useful product of the Sassafras tree 

 is the yellow powder prepared from the leaves by the Choctaw Indians of Louisiana, 

 used to give peculiar flavour and consistency to " Gumbo fild," one of the best 

 products of the Creole kitchen. 



Timber 



The wood has little or no economic value and is unknown in Europe. Michaux 

 says that it was never seen in the lumber yard, and was only occasionally used for 

 joists, rafters, and bedsteads ; and that it is not attacked by beetles on account of the 

 odour, which it preserves as long as it is kept dry. Ashe says it is light, soft, weak, 

 brittle, and coarse-grained, very durable in contact with the soil, and apt to crack 

 in drying. But the unusual orange-brown colour of the heartwood seems to me to 

 give it a value for ornamental carpentry, if it can be procured of sufficient size. 



(H. J. E.) 



