Trees, Shrubs and Vines 
SASSAFRAS.—-Our most aromatic tree, in root, leaf and 
bark, is the sassafras, with also a spicy odor in the flower. 
The blossom comes before the leaf, and a large tree in 
full bloom is a golden ornament of April; very con- 
spicuous, too, for the deep yellow clusters have almost 
the monopoly of color, standing out boldly against the 
bare forms of the woodland. The foliage has no special 
recommendation except that best of all blessings, health- 
fulness. One soon learns to recognize the tree from its 
deeply furrowed, yellow-tinted bark, which is rougher, 
even in asmall tree, than in other trunks three times its 
age and size. 
The sassafras is not as important a plant as when 
its medicinal virtues were in high esteem, but none 
the less interesting to the botanist. For ornament it is 
not a tree to choose; too good wantonly to uproot, but 
hardly worth deliberate planting, at least in such large 
numbers as one finds in the Park. It spreads rapidly 
by shoots from the root, so that a full-grown tree is apt 
to be surrounded by a flourishing brood of saplings. 
The fruit is berry-like and dark blue, on reddish stems, 
and eagerly sought by the birds. The most noticeable 
characteristic is the variant form of leaf, the mulberry- 
leaf being the only other one that is like it in this re- 
spect ; for while the majority of its leaves are ‘‘ entire,”’ 
some are two-lobed, others three-lobed, and all the dif- 
ferent shapes are often growing on the same twig. The 
foreign mulberry shows an even greater variation on the 
same plant. 
The ‘‘ entire’’ form of leaf, z.¢., with a smooth edge, 
always gives a colorless character to foliage. ‘This is 
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