Sassafras. LAURACEiE. 159 



appear earlier than the others. Flowers in clustered corymbose racemes, at the extremity of 

 the last year's shoots, greenish yellow : pedicels 3-6 lines long, villous, with long linear 

 villous bracts at the base. Calyx expanded ; the sepals oblong, obtuse. Sterile kl. Stamens 

 nearly as long as the calyx ; each anther opening by four little valves which are recurved 

 upward ; the three inner ones with six orange-colored roundish glands at their base. Fertile 

 FL. Stamens 6, in a single series, half the length of the calyx, imperfect. Fruit ovoid, dark 

 blue when mature ; the pedicels much thickened below the flower, and of a bright purplish 

 red color , the pulp thin, and containing a fixed aromatic oil. 



Woods and banks of rivers, south and west of Troy. Fl. April - May. Fr. September. 

 The Sassafras has long been an article of the materia medica. Its virtues reside in a volatile 

 fragrant oil whicli is contained in every part of the tree, but particularly in the bark of the 

 root. The roots are chief!}' used in the preparation of the compound decoction of guiacum, 

 and certain diet drinks. The volatile oil is used as a stimulant and sudorific in chronic 

 rheumatism and other diseases. (See Bigclow's med. hot.; also Wood and Backers U. S. 

 Dispens. p. 591.) 



2. BENZOIN. Nees, si/st. Law. p. 493 ; Endl. gen. 2057. WILD ALLSPICE. 



[ So named because its fragrance resembles that of the resinous substance benzain.l 



Flowers dioecious, with deciduous involucrate scales at the base. Calyx 5 - 6 -parted, 

 membranaceous, deciduous. Sterile fl. Fertile stamens 9, in three series : anthers 

 2-celled ; the six exterior simple ; the three (and sometimes the five) inner dilated and 

 1 - 2-lobed at the base, each lobe bearing a reniform or somewhat peltate gland. "Fertile 

 FL. Sterile stamens 15 - 18, filiform, acute, alternating with smaller spatulate ones" {Nees). 

 Ovary globose-ovoid : style short : stigma capitate, 2-lobcd. Drupe obovoid, with a crusta- 

 ceous endocarp ; the pedicel not thickened. — Trees or shrubs, with entire deciduous leaves. 

 Flowers greenish yellow, in small fasciculate umbels, appearing before the leaves. 



1. Benzoin odoriferum, Nees. Wild Allspice. Fever-bush. Sjnce-hush. 



Leaves oblong-obovate, pale underneath, nearly smooth; flowers in glomerate minute umbels, 

 the involucre and pedicels smooth. — Nees, syst. Laur. p. 497 ; Hook. fl. Bar- Am. 2. p. 137. 

 Laurus Benzoin, Linn. sp. 1. p. 370 ; Pursh, fl. 1. p. 276 ; Nutt. gen. 1. p. 259 ; Ell. sk. 

 1. p. 463 ; Bart. veg. 7nat. med. p. 2. t. 33 ; Ton: fl. 1. p. 409 ; Bigel. fl. Bast. p. 160 ; 

 Beck, hot. p. 305 ; Darlingt. fl. Cest. p. 253. L. Pseudo-Benzoin, Michx. fl. 1. p. 243. 



A shrub 6-10 feet high, with smooth virgate brittle branches. Leaves 3 — 5 inches long 

 and 1-2 inches wide, acute, acuminate or sometimes rather obtuse, very thin, smooth except 

 a slight pubescence on the veins. Flowers in numerous small sessile umbels. Involucrate 

 scales oblong, concave, enclosing 4-6 flowers on short pedicels. Sepals 5-6. Stamens 

 9 : filaments of the six exterior mostly subulate ; of the three inner, 2-lobed at the base, or 



