SASSAFRAS 
Sassafras, Nees ab Esenbeck u. Ebermaier, Handb. Med. Pharm. Bot. i. 418 (1830); Bentham et 
Hooker, Gen. Pi. iii. 160 (1880). 
Decipvous trees belonging to the order Lauracez, with alternate pinnately-veined 
simple leaves without stipules. Flowers dicecious or rarely perfect, in few-flowered 
racemes in the axils of bud-scales at the ends of the previous year’s shoots. Calyx 
six-lobed, the lobes in two series, imbricated in bud ; petals absent. Staminate flowers ; 
stamens nine in three series, the three inner ones each with two stalked glands at 
the base; anthers opening with four valves. Pistillate flowers with flattened ovate 
pointed or slightly two-lobed staminodes, or occasionally with fertile stamens like 
those of the male flowers; ovary ovoid, glabrous, superior, one-celled; ovule 
solitary, suspended ; one style elongated with a capitate stigma. Fruit an oblong- 
ovoid, one-seeded dark-blue berry, surrounded at the base by the enlarged and 
thickened calyx-limb, and supported on pedicels much thickened above the middle. 
The genus comprises only two species, one occurring in North America and the 
other in China. 
SASSAFRAS TZUMU, Curnese Sassarras 
Sassafras Tzumu, Hemsley, in Kew Bull. 1907, p. 55, and in Hooker, Jcon. Plant. t. 2833 (1907). 
Litsea laxiflora, Hemsley, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxvi. 383, t. 8 (1891). 
Lindera Teumu, Hemsley, of. cit. 392 (1891). 
This species grows sparingly in China in mountain woods at 3000 to 5000 feet 
elevation, south-west of Ichang, in the province of Hupeh; near Kiukiang in 
Kiangsi; and inland from Ningpo in Chekiang. It attains a height of 50 feet and 
yields a timber esteemed by the mountaineers, who call it the ¢zu-mu or huang ch‘tu 
tree. Resembling very closely the American species in the characters of the foliage 
and inflorescence, it was considered by Prof. Sargent’ and Mr. E. H. Wilson to be 
indistinguishable. Mr. Hemsley, however, points out certain differences in the 
floral organs, which entitle it to rank as a distinct species. The flowers are slightly 
smaller than those of the American tree, and are pubescent within and not glabrous 
as in that species. The male flowers have three staminodes alternating with the 
glandular row of stamens and a prominent pistillode, which are wanting in Sassafras 
1 Trees N. Amer, 336 (1905). 
III 515 K 
