THE LAUREL FAMILY. 193 



SASSAFRAS. AGUE TREE. 



Sa'ssa/rns Sassafras. 

 FAMILY Shape height range time of bloom 



Liiurel. Crown, nurroxv^ o/>en. i^-jo-i'z<^fect. Texas and liorida .-ipri/, AJ„y. 



northward. Fruit: Aug., 6>//. 



Bark I dark, reddish brown ; irregularly broken and furrowed. BraUchlets : 

 yellowisli grey, when young, peeling readily; aromatic ; mucilaginous. Leaves) 

 aUernate ; petioled, entire or two to live lobecJ ; ovale orobovate, when two-lobed 

 usually mitten-shaped ; the apices of the leaves and h^bes bluntly jjointed or 

 slightly rounded ; narrowed at the base. Sinuses: when the loixs are present, 

 rounded. Dark green ; shiny becoming glabrous and often sprinkled with pellucid 

 dots, /^f'i^M/^r J- ; dioecious; greenish yellow, growing in umbel-like clusters and 

 appearing with the leaves. Calyx', pubescent; six-lobed. Statnetts : nine. 

 Fruit : blue, growing on showy red pedicels ; oval j one-seeded; pungent. 



In travelling through the mountainous districts of the south we saw- 

 quantities and quantities of the sassafras as it lined the sides of roads and 

 occurred mostly in its shrubby form. But through denser thickets its 

 brilliant red peduncles holding blue berries also shone brightly. The higher 

 up we went the more of these berries were about, for it was then late in the 

 season when few birds were there to feast on them. They had gone below, 

 leaving in time a region w^here the winters are often so cold that Nellie Cotton- 

 tail is found frozen stiff on the ground. Of the sassafras it has been 

 written : " It is the last survivor of a race which at an earlier period of the 

 earth's history was common to the two hemispheres. It is the only tree in 

 a large and important family of plants which has been able to maintain itself 

 in a region of severe winter cold. The structure of its flowers, like those of 

 other plants of the laurel family, is curious and not easily explained with refer- 

 ence to special adaptations to special ends." 



After the sassafras' discovery, it was for as long as two centuries regarded 

 as a panacea for all ills and wide-spread was the belief in the virtue of its 

 wood and bark. In 1602 an expedition was sent from England to Massa- 

 chusetts wath the sole object in view of procuring it, while in Virginia, the 

 officials were instructed to send it home. Among other wonderful things it 

 even had attributed to it the power of making salt water tit to drink, 

 Emerson moreover says : " this tree has the credit of having aided in the 

 discovery of America, as it is said to have been its strong fragrance, smelt 

 by Columbus, which encouraged him to persevere, and enabled him to con- 

 vince his mutinous crew that land was near." It w^as the French in Florida 

 also who first learned from the Indians who called it " pavame " some of 

 the other things for which it was employed. In Louisiana the Choctaw 

 Indians still make from its leaves a yellow pow^der with which the Creoles give 

 flavour to their gumbo file. The twigs besides yield a mucilaginous sub- 

 stance useful to oculists and the aromatic oil obtained from its wood is 



