TREES GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 263 



seems as though their wealth of loveliness had been held in re- 

 serve for a time when other things should have faded, and as a 

 compensation for their rather insignificant showing of flowers 

 in the spring. They cling to the bushes throughout the winter, 

 and are truly snowberries, for of the earth's soft, white cloak 

 they have no dread. 



In North Carolina the shrub is commonly seen, where it is 

 much planted about old farmhouses. Bordering many of the 

 drives of the Biltmore estate it is abundantly growing. The 

 creeping roots of the shrub have a curious way of entangling 

 themselves with other things, and not exactly respecting the 

 laws of independence. On this account it has in some places 

 been rather a nuisance on plantations, as is uniquely suggested 

 to the mind by its name of " Devil's shoe strings." Not infre- 

 quently the snowberry gleams from among rocks and by the 

 banks of streams. 



SASSAFRAS. AGUE TREE. {Plate CXLIII) 

 Sassafras Sassafras. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Laurel. Head, narrow, flat. i 5-50-90 fleet. Eastern Mass. south- April, May. 



ward and wesHvard. Fruit: A ug.-Oct. 



Bark : dark, reddish brown ; irregularly broken, and furrowed. Branchlets : 

 yellowish grey when young, peeling readily; aromatic; mucilaginous. Leaves : 

 simple; alternate; petioled ; entire or two to five-lobed ; ovate or obovate; 

 when two-lobed usually mitten-shaped; the apex of the leaves and lobes 

 bluntly pointed or slightly rounded ; taper-pointed at the base. Sinuses : when 

 the lobes are present, rounded. Dark green; shiny, becoming soon glabrous 

 and often sprinkled with pellucid dots. Flowers : dioecious ; greenish yellow ; 

 growing in umbel-like clusters and appearing with the leaves. Calyx: six- 

 lobed. Stamens: nine. Fruit: blue; growing on red pedicels; oval; one- 

 seeded ; pungent. 



It is always pleasant to come upon the sassafras, either when 

 it grows in rich woods or in the dry, well-drained soil of the 

 roadsides. In the spring especially, its drooping clusters of 

 flowers attract us, as they shine pure and white among its 

 quaint and young, flushed leaves. The large buds and the bark 

 of the crisp, green shoots are also enticing ; for they are gifted 



