LATJRACE/E 



present, usually abortive, rarely fertile in the Asiatic species. Fruit an oblong dark blue or 

 black lustrous berry surrounded at base by the enlarged and thickened obscurely 6-lobed or 

 truncate scarlet or orange-red limb of the calyx, raised on a much elongated scarlet stalk 

 thickened above the middle; pericarp thin and fleshy. Seed oblong, pointed, light brown; 

 testa thin, membranaceous, barely separable into 2 coats, the inner coat much thinner than 

 the outer, dark chestnut-brown, and lustrous. 



Sassafras is confined to temperate eastern North America, central China and to Formosa 

 where Sassafras tzumu -Hems!, and S. randaiense Rehd. occur. 



Sassafras was first used as a popular name for this tree by the French in Florida. 



11. Sassafras officinale Nees & Ebermaier. 

 Sassafras Sassafras Karst. 



Leaves 4'-6' long, 2'-4' wide, densely pubescent when they first appear, pubescent or 

 puberulous below at maturity especially on the midrib and veins; turning in the autumn 

 delicate shades of yellow or orange more or less tinged with red; petioles f'-l^' in length. 

 Flowers %' long when fully expanded glabrous on the inner surface of the perianth, in 



Fig. 325 



racemes about 2' in length, stamens 9. Fruit ripening in September and October, blue, 

 $' long, on stalks l|'-2' in length, separating when ripe from the thick scarlet calyx-lobes 

 persistent with the stalks of the fruit on the branches until the beginning of winter. 



A tree, occasionally 80-90 high, with a trunk nearly 6 in diameter, short stout more 

 or less contorted branches spreading almost at right angles and forming a narrow usually 

 flat-topped head, and slender branchlets light yellow-green and coated when they first 

 appear with pale pubescence, becoming glabrous, bright green and lustrous, gradually turn- 

 ing reddish brown at the end of two or three years; frequently not more than 40-50 tall; 

 at the north and in Florida generally smaller and often shrubby. Winter-buds l'-f ' long- 

 Bark of young stems and branches thin, reddish brown divided by shallow fissures, becom- 

 ing on old trunks sometimes 1|' thick, dark red-brown, and deeply and irregularly divided 

 into broad flat ridges separating on the surface into thick appressed scales. Wood soft, 

 weak, brittle, coarse-grained, very durable in the soil, aromatic, dull orange-brown, with 

 thin light yellow sapwood of 7 or 8 layers of annual growth; largely used for fence-posts and 

 rails, in the construction of light boats, ox-yokes, and in cooperage. The r<3ots and espe- 

 cially their bark are a mild aromatic stimulant, and oil of sassafras, used to perfume soap and 

 other articles, is distilled from them. Gumbo filet, a powder prepared from the leaves by 



