Lauraceae. 



71 



Sassafras. Sassafras. 

 (Family Lauraceae). 



Aromatic tree or often forming 

 dense masses of shrubbery: de- 

 ciduous. Twigs green, glabres- 

 cent, rounded, moderate, often 

 branching the first year. Pith 

 moderate, somewhat 5-sided, white, 

 continuous. Buds usually soli- 

 tary, ovoid, sessile, subglobose; 

 scales about 4 fleshy rather keeled, 

 the end-bud somewhat larger. 

 Leaf-scars small, half-round or 

 crescent-shaped, somewhat raised: 

 bundle-trace a transverse line 

 more or less broken into 3: stipule- 

 scars lacking. 



The sassafras is one of the most 

 easily recognized native trees in 

 winter. Its rough bark, once 

 known, is not easily forgotten: 

 and its green mucilaginous spicy 

 twigs are often corymbosely 

 branched above the situation of the uppermost juncture or 

 winter-node marked by scars corresponding to the scales of 

 the last winter bud. Its winter-characters are discussed by 

 Blakeslee & Jarvis, 333, 476, pi.; Brendel, 30-32, pi. 3; Hitch- 

 cock (1), 5; Otis, 138; Schneider, f. 143. 



Though only one Sassafras is known at present, 25 North 

 American fossil species of the genus are included in Knowl- 

 ton's catalogue of Cretaceous and Tertiary fossils published 

 as Bulletin 152 of the United States Geological Survey. Les- 

 quereux, however, in his Tertiary Flora questions all but two. 

 Twigs not glaucous. S. variifolium. 



Twigs glaucous. S. variifolium albidum. 



