298 The Sassafras: The Mahogany, etc. 



from New England to Iowa, and throughout the Middle and Southern 

 States. In Massachusetts it is found thirty feet in height and a foot 

 in diameter. lu West Virginia it is sometimes seventy or eighty 

 feet high and three feet in diameter, and in West Tennessee a speci- 

 men has been measured five feet across the stump within the bark. 

 In Canada it is only found westward of the Niagara river. The wood 

 is soft, brittle, close-grained, and sometimes used in cabinet-work, 

 when stripped of its bark, and seasoned, it is durable as fence-posts. 



1227. An essential, oil having valuable medicinal qualities, is dis- 

 tilled from the bark of the roots, and the pith from the young twigs 

 is mucilaginous and medicinal, being worth from $3 to $4 a pound. 

 The roots also yield a drab-colored dye, with copperas as a mordant, 

 and the leaves when steeped in water afford an agreeable and healthy 

 mucilaginous drink. The roots of sassafras are very tenacious of 

 life, and will sprout and grow with a remarkable persistency until 

 wholly eradicated. 



1228. THE BUFFALO BERRY (Shepherdia argentea) is a spiny shrub, 

 growing 5 to 18 feet high, and occurs east of the Sierras and from 

 New Mexico far into the northern regions of British America. It 

 has been mentioned as available on account of its fruit, and as a 

 hedge plant in the west. 



1229. THE MAHOGANY (Swietenia maJwganii) . This highly prized 

 wood for fine cabinet-work, chiefly comes from the West Indies, 



Mexico, and Central America, 



state. Although an exogenous 

 tree, the lines of growth, as in 

 147. Cross-section of Mohogany. many other tropical species, 



are seldom sharply defined, as where the growth has been distinctly 



interrupted by a cold winter. 



1230. ARROW- WOOD (Tcssaria borealis). This is a branching 

 willow-like shrub several feet high, growing on the sand-banks of 

 rivers from New Mexico to California. The Indians are said to use 

 the wood for arrows. 



1231. THE CALIFORNIA LAUREL ( Umbrellularia Calif ornica). 1 This 



1 By some botanists called "Oreodaphne Californica." 



