126 Sassafras. 



be ranked among the most common trees. It is seen growing 

 on lands of every description, from the dry and gravelly to 

 the most moist and fertile, with the exception of such as are 

 arid and sandy to excess, like the jnne-harrens o^ the Southern 

 States : neither is it found in the swamps that border the 

 rivers by which these states are watered. 



This tree attains its greatest developement on the declivities 

 which skirt the swamps, and such as sustain the luxuriant 

 forests of Kentucky and West Tennessee, where it arrives to 

 the height of 50 or 60 feet, with a proportionate diameter. 

 The bark which covers old trees is of a grayish color, and is 

 chapped into deep cracks. On cutting into it, it exhibits a 

 dark dull red, a good deal resemblinti the color of the Peru- 

 vian bark. The bark of the young branches is smooth and of 

 a beautiful green color. The old trees give birth to hundreds 

 of shoots which spring up at little distances, but which rarely 

 rise higher than six or eight feet. The leaves of the sassafras 

 are four or five inches in length, alternate, and petiolated. 

 At their unfolding in the spring they are downy and of a ten- 

 der texture. They are of different shapes upon the same 

 tree, being sometimes oval and entire, and sometimes divided 

 into lobes, which are generally three in number, and which 

 are rounded at the summit. The lobed leaves are the most 

 numerous, and are situated on the upper part of the tree. 

 About New York and Philadelphia this tree is in full bloom 

 in the beginning of May, and six weeks earlier in South Caro- 

 lina. The flowers unfold before the leaves, and appear in 

 small clusters at the end of the last year's shoots. They are 

 of a greenish yellow hue, and are but slightly odoriferous. In 

 this species of laurel the sexes are confined to different stocks. 

 The fruit or seed is of an oval form, and of a deep-blue color, 

 and is contained in small, bright, red cups, supported by pe- 

 duncles from one to two inches in length. These seeds, when 

 ripe, are eagerly devoured by the birds, and soon disappear 

 from the tree. 



The wood of this tree is not strong, and branches of con- 

 siderable size may be broken with a slight effort. In the 

 young tree the wood is white ; in those which exceed fifteen 

 or eighteen inches in diameter it is reddish and of a closer 

 grain. It is not, however, in these respects to be compared 

 with the oak and hickory. Experience shows, that this wood, 

 stript of its bark, resists for a considerable period the progress 

 of decay ; and it is on this account employed for the posts 

 and rails of rural fence. It is also sometimes used for the 

 joints and rafters in houses built of wood. It is said to be 



