148 CHINESE ECONOMIC TREES 



II. Leaves persistent, entire. 



A. Flowers crowded in umbel-lite cymes, each cyme subtended 

 by 4 concave bracts; drupe on a thickened perianth tube. . 

 Litsea. 



B. Flowers separate in loose panicles. 



1. Leaves mostly 3-nerved; perianth lobes deciduous; fruit 

 on an enlarged pedicel Cinnamomum. 



2. Leaves mostly pinnately veined ; perianth lobes persistent 

 under the fruit; pedicel not enlarged. 



a. Anthers all extrorse < Phoebe. 



b. Anthers some extrorse and some introrse. .Machilus. 



SASSAFRAS 



Trees, deciduous. Leaves alternate, somewhat crowded towards ends 

 of branchlets, entire or 2 or 3-lobed (very rarely 5-lobed), with slender 

 petioles. 



Flowers in axillary long-stalked umbels near the ends of the 

 branchlets, imperfect, usually dioecious. Stamens 9, inserted in 3 series 

 on the margin of the thickened or fleshy calyx tube, the innermost 

 series each with 2 orange-colored glands at the base; anthers 4-celled, 

 introrse. 



Fruit a dark blue drupe inserted on a thickened receptacle formed 

 by the calyx tube; the receptacle reddish colored. 



Only 3 species are known, 1 in Eastern North America, 1 in China 

 and 1 in Formosa. The Chinese species is scarcely distinguishable from 

 the American one. 



The leaves of the sassafras are aromatic and are either entire or 1-3 

 lobed with broad sinuses, at first bright green in color, later changing to 

 brilliant shades of yellow and red in the autumn. The fruits are brightly 

 colored, augmenting the ornamental character of the foliage. 



The tree has a long tap root and cannot be readily transplanted. 

 Sassafras produces many suckers, by which means the tree is sometimes 

 propagated. 



