LAURACE.^— LAUREL FAMILY 



SASSAFRAS 



Sassafras sassafras. 



Usually from thirty to fifty feet high, sometimes one hundred, 

 with a stout trunk and flat-topped head ; often much smaller and 

 shrubby. Thick fleshy roots penetrate deep into the ground and 

 send out abundance of suckers, making thickets. Prefers rich sandy 

 loam. Grows rapidly. Ranges from Massachusetts to Florida and 

 west throughout the Mississippi valley. 



Bark.—i:\nc]>L, dark, red brown, deeply and irregularly divided into 

 broad flat ridges, separating into thick appressed scales on the sur- 

 face. Branchlets bright yellow green, finally reddish brown, and in 

 two or three years begin to show shallow fissures. Aromatic and 

 spicy. Twigs mucilaginous. 



Wood. — Dull orange brown ; soft, weak, coarse-grained, brittle, 

 though durable in contact with the soil. Used for posts and rails, 

 small boats and ox-yokes. 



Winter Buds. — Flower-buds terminal, ovate, acute ; axillary buds 

 small. The scales enlarge with the growing shoot, the inner be- 

 coming leaf-like before falling. 



Leaves. — Alternate, ovate or obovate, four to six inches long, en- 

 tire or one to three-lobed, lobes broadly ovate, divided by broad 

 sinuses ; margins entire. They come out of the bud involute, red- 

 dish green ; when full grown are smooth, dull dark green above, 

 paler beneath. In autumn they turn to shades of yellow, tinged 

 with red. Petioles slender, slightly grooved. 



Flowers. — May, with the first unfolding of the leaves. Dioecious, 

 rarely perfect, greenish yellow, borne in loose, drooping, few- 

 flowered racemes ; involucre of scaly bracts. 



Calyx. — Pale yellow green, six-lobed, spreading, imbricate in 

 bud. 



Corolla. — Wanting. 



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