CHAP. XCIII. LAUR^CEIE. LAU'RUS. 1301 



introduced in 1821. The leaves are alternate, petiolated, of a yel- 

 lowish or apple green on the upper side, and very glaucous on the 

 under, with the three nerves uniting a little above the insertion of the 

 petiole, and terminating short of the point of the leaf. The young shoots 

 are axillary, and come out from among the flowers, and are furnished 

 with several membranaceous slightly coloured scales, or a sort of sti- 

 pules, which are very deciduous. It is rather tender ; but, from the lo- 

 cality, where it is indigenous, it would probably succeed with very little 

 protection against a conservative wall. 



l^fcc^tcns Ait, L. madeirensis Lam., PeYsea fce"tens Sprcng., is a native 

 of Madeira, and the Canary Islands, introduced in 1760, and producing its 

 greenish yellow flowers from March to October. In its native country it 

 forms a small tree 20ft. high ; but in British gardens it is commonly kept 

 in a green-house, or in a cold-pit. The plant, however, in the Horticultural 

 Society's Garden, has stood out as a bush since 1831, and is now upwards of 

 4ft. high. There can be little doubt that this, and the other species enu- 

 merated as half-hardy, would stand against a wall with very little protection. 



L. Myrrfta Lour, is a native of China, which has stood against a wall in the 

 Horticultural Society's Garden since 1832. It is generally injured more or 

 less when the winters are severe ; but it always springs up again, and grows 

 vigorously during summer. 



L. indi'ca L. is an evergreen tree, with noble foliage, which lives and 

 attains a considerable size in our conservatories and green-houses ; and 

 there can be little doubt that in the south of England it would live against a conservative wall, at 

 least as well as the orange and the lemon. 



C. Leaves deciduous. 

 5. L. SA'SSAFRAS L. The Sassafras Laurel, or Sassafras Tree. 



Identification. Lin. Hort. Cliff., 151. , Gron. Virg., 46. ; Kalm It., 2. p. 270. 434. ; Mill. Diet., No. 7. ; 



Trew Ehret, t. 59, 60. ; Willd. So. PI., 2. p. 485. ; Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836. 



Stftionymes. Cornus mas odorata, folio trifido, margine piano, Sassafras dicta, Pluk. Aim,, 120, t. 222 

 'f. 6., Catesb. Car., l.p. 55. t. 55.. Seligm. Av. Ic., 2. t. 10. ; Sassafras arbor, ex Florida, ficulneo 



folio, Kauh. Pin., 4,31. ; SdtmfrattQ, C. G. Nees Von Esenbeck ; Pt-rsea SAssafras Spreng. ; Laurier 



Sassafras, Fr. ; Sassafras Lorbeer, Gcr. 

 Engravings. Trew Ehret, t.59, 60. ; Blackw. Herb., t. 267. ; Giesecke Ic., fasc. 1. No. 9. ; Pluk. 



Aim., t. 222. f. 6. ; Catesb Car., 1. t. 55. ; Seligm. Av. Ic., 2. t. 10. ; and plates in our last Volume. 



Spec. Char., fyc. Sexes dioecious. Habit arborescent. Both leaves and 

 flowers are produced from the same buds. Buds, younger branches, and 

 the under surface of the leaves, pubescent. Leaves entire, or with 2 3 

 lobes. Veins prominent on the under side. Flowers in corymbose con- 

 glomerate racemes. Anthers with 4 unequal cells. In the female flower, 

 additionally to the pistil, are 6 gland-like bodies, like those in the male 

 flowers. (Nutt. Gen., i. p. 259.) A deciduous tree, from 40ft. to 50ft. 

 high. A native of North America. Introduced in 1633, and flowering in 

 April and May. 



Varieties. Nuttall states (Gen. $ Cat. N. A. P.) that the inhabitants of North 

 and South Carolina distinguished two kinds of sassafras, the red and the 

 white, calling the latter, also, the smooth. The red he identifies with the 

 jL.,subgenus Euosmus Nutt., Sassafras L.; and the white or smooth he con- 

 siders a species belonging to the same subgenus, which he calls L. E. albida 

 Nutt., and of which he has adduced the following characteristics. Its buds 

 and younger branches are smooth and glaucous ; its leaves are every where 

 glabrous and thin, and the veins are obsolete on the under surface; the 

 petiole is longer. He had not seen it in flower. The root is much more 

 strongly camphorated than the root of the red sort (L. Sassafras), and is 

 nearly white. This kind is better calculated to answer as a substitute for 

 ochra (7/ibiscus esculentus) than the L. Sassafras, from its buds and young 

 branches being much more mucilaginous. It is abundant in North and 

 South Carolina, from the Catawba Mountains to the east bank of the 

 Santee, growing with L. Sassafras, which, in North Carolina, is less abun- 

 dant. (Nut. Gen., i. p. 259, 260.) 



Description, #c. The sassafras tree often grows, even in England, to the 

 height of 40 ft. or 50 ft. (See plate of the tree at Syon, in our last Volume.) 

 The leaves, which vary very much in size and shape, are covered, when they 

 first appear, with a soft woolly down ; they are generally deeply lobed, on 

 long footstalks, and of a pale green; they fall off early in autumn. The 

 flowers are of a greenish yellow, and but slightly odoriferous ; the berries 

 are oval, of a bright but deep blue, and contained in small dark red cups, 



4o. 4 



