LAURACE^E LAUREL FAMILY 



SPICE-BUSH. CAROLINA ALLSPICE. BENJAMIN-BUSH 



Benzoin benzoin. Littdera benzoin. 



Named for John Linder, a Swedish botanist of the eighteenth 

 century. Benzoin refers to its aromatic odor, somewhat 

 resembling that of gum-benzoin. 



Tall, well-shaped, four to twelve feet high. Found in damp 

 woods throughout New England, westward as far as Michigan 

 and Kansas and southward. Leaves, fruit and bark are aromatic. 

 Easily cultivated. 



Bark. Branchlets at first bright green, smooth, later olive 

 green, sometimes pearly gray, finally grayish brown. Branches 

 are long, tapering and brittle. 



Winter buds. Flower and leaf buds distinct. Leaf buds 

 small, one-eighth of an inch long, acute, solitary. Flower buds 

 globose, in groups of two to five. 



Leaves. Alternate, simple, pinnately veined, three to six inches 

 long, one and one-half to three wide, oval, oblong-oval, or obovate, 

 wedge-shaped at base, entire, abruptly acute, sometimes rounded 

 at apex ; mid vein, primary and secondary veins depressed above, 

 prominent beneath. They come out of the bud revolute, ciliate at 

 margin, pale green ; when full grown are dull dark green above, 

 pale or glaucous green below. In autumn they turn a clear 

 bright yellow. Petiole about half an inch long, terete. 



Flowers. March, April ; before the leaves. Polygamo- 

 dicecious, greenish yellow, small, borne in almost sessile umbel- 

 like clusters in the axils of last year's leaves. Each cluster is 

 made up of secondary clusters of four to six flowers, surrounded 

 by an involucre of four deciduous scales. 



