LAURACE^E 



337 



1. Sassafras Sassafras, Karst. Sassafras. 



Leaves 4'-6' long, 2'-4' wide, turning in the autumn delicate shades of yellow or 

 orange more or less tinged with red; their petioles f'-l^' l n g- Flowers ^' long 

 when fully expanded, in racemes about 2' long. Fruit ripening in September and 

 October, J' long, on stalks l'-2' in length, separating when ripe from the thick 

 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, soon glabrous, bright green 

 and lustrous, gradually turning reddish brown at the end of two or three years; 

 frequently not more than 40-50 tall; at the north generally smaller and often 

 shrubby. Winter-buds ^' |' long. Bark of young stems and branches thin, red- 

 dish brown, divided by shallow fissures, becoming on old trunks sometimes 1|' thick, 

 dark red-brown, and deeply and irregularly divided into broad flat ridges sepa- 

 rating 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 roots and especially 

 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 the Choctaw Indians of Louisiana, gives flavor and consistency to gumbo 

 soup. 



Distribution. Usually in rich sandy well-drained soil, southern Maine and east- 

 ern Massachusetts, through southern Vermont, southern Ontario, central Michigan, 

 and southeastern Iowa to eastern Kansas and the Indian Territory, and southward 

 to central Florida and the valley of the Brazos River, Texas; in the south Atlantic 

 and Gulf states often taking possession of abandoned fields. 



Occasionally cultivated in the eastern states as an ornamental tree. 



