LUTHER BURBANK 



There are some members of the laurel family, 

 also, that produce commercial products that make 

 them perhaps worthy of attention. The camphor 

 tree is too tender to be grown in our latitudes, but 

 its relative, the sassafras, is a common tree 

 throughout the eastern states, thriving even in 

 New York and New England. Its bark furnishes 

 the characteristic flavoring that is used for per- 

 fuming soaps and for similar purposes. The pro- 

 duction of the sassafras would not constitute a 

 significant industry under any circumstances, 

 doubtless, yet there would be a measure of scien- 

 tific interest in testing its capacities for improve- 

 ment, and not unlikely new uses would be found 

 for its product if it were made available in larger 

 quantity. 



Another tribe that furnishes a product of a 

 unique quality is that represented by a familiar 

 wild shrub known in the eastern states as the wax 

 berry or candle berry (Myrica cerifera) and some- 

 times also spoken of as the bay berry owing to the 

 fragrance of its leaves. 



This shrub bears an abundance of small berries 

 from which may be extracted a quantity of hard 

 greenish fragrant wax, which was formerly much 

 prized for the making of candles, and which has a 

 certain value for the various other uses to which 

 wax is put. 



[266] 



