130 TREES 



laurel- grows wild in the West Indies, Brazil, Peru, and 

 Mexico. Its berry attains the size of a large pear. It has 

 been developed in several commercial varieties, all having 

 smooth green or purple skin, and soft oily pulp like mar- 

 row surrounding a single gigantic seed. It is usually cut 

 in two like a melon and eaten raw as a salad dressed with 

 vinegar, salt, and pepper. Once a stranger acquires the 

 taste, he is extremely fond of this new salad fruit. The 

 growing of the trees is easy and very profitable. At 

 present the fruits are in great demand in city markets, 

 and the prices are too high for any but the rich to enjoy 

 this luxury. 



Where a market is difficult to reach, the abundant cU is 

 expressed from these fruits and used for illumination and 

 the manufacture of soap. The seeds yield an indehble ink. 



It is interesting to the student of trees to note how many 

 tropical families have representation in North America, 

 due to the fact that Florida extends into the tropics, and 

 the West Indies seem to form a sort of bridge over which 

 Central American and South American species have 

 reached the Floridian Keys and the mainland. 



The Sassafras 



Sassafras, Karst. 



The sole remnant of an ancient genus is the aro- 

 matic sassafras familiar as a roadside tree that flames 

 in autumn with the star gum and the swamp maples. In 

 the deep woods it reaches a height of more than a 

 hundred feet and is an important lumber tree. In the 

 arctic regions and in the rocky strata of our western 

 mountains, fossil leaves of sassafras are preserved, and 



