132 TREES 



used it to make posts and fence rails. It is largely used 

 also in cooperage, and in the building of light boats. Oil 

 of sassafras distilled from the bark of the roots is used for 

 perfuming soaps and flavoring medicines. 



With all its practical uses listed above, we must all 

 have learned to know the tree if it grows in our neighbor- 

 hood, and if we observe it closely, month by month 

 throughout the year, we shall all agree that its beauty 

 justifies its selection for planting in our home grounds, and 

 surpasses all its medicinal and other commercial offerings 

 to the world. 



In winter the sassafras tree is most picturesque by reason 

 of the short, stout, twisted branches that spread almost at 

 right angles from the central shaft, and form a narrow, 

 usually flat, often unsymmetrical head. The bark is 

 rough, reddish brown, deeply and irregularly divided into 

 broad scaly plates or ridges. The branches end in slim, pale 

 yellow-green twigs that are set with pointed, bright green 

 buds, giving the tree an appearance of being thoroughly 

 alive while others, bare of leaves, look dead in winter. 



What country boy or girl has not lingered on the way 

 home from school to nibble the dainty green buds of the 

 sassafras, or to dig at the roots with his jack-knife for a 

 sliver of aromatic bark? 



As spring comes on the bare twigs are covered with a 

 delicate green of the opening leaves, brightened by clusters 

 of yellow flowers {see illustration, page 150) whose starry 

 calyxes are alike on all of the trees; but only on the fertile 

 trees are the flowers succeeded by the blue berries, soften- 

 ing on their scarlet pedicels, if only the birds can wait until 

 they are ripe. 



Midsummer is the time to hunt for "mittens" and to 



