182 



ECONOMIC BOTANY OF ALABAMA 



48 



49 



Figs. 48, 49. Two views of what may be the largest sassafras tree in 

 Alabama, in eastern part of Tuscaloosa (12th St. near 10th Ave.), taken 

 from same point, in spring, about six years apart. March 21, 1913, and April 

 11, 1919. On the latter date the trunk was 34 inches in diameter, breast-high. 

 At the present time the tree is in a thickly settled neighborhood, and about 

 half its branches are dead. Nothing is known of its history previous to 1913, 

 but it probably did not grow up in a virgin forest, but more likely in the yard 

 of some farm-house. 



in that form it is somewhat of a nuisance. These sprouts or sap- 

 Hngs have some redeeming features, however, for they are often 

 cut for pea-vine supports, brooms, hoops, etc., and the roots are 

 dtig for sassafras tea, a popular semi-medicinal beverage or spring 

 tonic in the rural districts. (I have even seen sassafras roots on 

 sale at grocery stores in Birmingham.) In some parts of the 

 country the natives distinguish two kinds of roots, "red" and 

 "white" sassafras, and regard the latter as poisonous ; but no such 

 distinction is made by botanists, and if there is any difference it 

 is probably due to age, habitat, or some other unimportant factor. 

 The whole plant, like other members of the family, is aro- 

 matic, and the pith, the bark of the root, and the oil distilled from 

 it, are officinal in the U. S. Pharmacopoiea. The leaves are some- 

 times used for flavoring soup, like those of Persca. The wood is 

 light, soft and weak, but durable, and the Indians sometimes carved 

 canoes out of single logs of it. It is used to some extent for fence- 

 rails, posts, and telephone poles. Along a country road near Dade- 



