174 Ornamental Shrubs. 



flower is yellow, not very conspicuous, and appears in ad- 

 vance of the leaves. 



The sassafras was one of the first of American trees to 

 attract the attention of Europeans. It was carried to the 

 Old World as early as 1540, and in 1549 a treatise was 

 published by Gerard, who called it the ague tree, and 

 pronounced a decoction of its bark a cure for many 

 diseases. For a long time its real or supposed medicinal 

 virtues gave it a high place among the physicians, and its 

 merits are still recognized. Its virtues in this direction 

 are said to come largely from the inner bark, both of the 

 trunk and roots, which is of a dark reddish color not alto- 

 gether unlike the celebrated Peruvian bark. The flowers 

 and twigs are also in use, and the wood is sold in chips for 

 medicinal purposes. Few trees or plants have held their 

 reputation so long and through so many vicissitudes as 

 this. A large number of supposed species or varieties are 

 found in a fossil condition, — that is to say, the leaves of 

 such trees are found, and it has been supposed they be- 

 longed to different species, from the fact of their varying 

 in character, — but as our present species of sassafras has 

 numerous forms, even on a small tree, it does not follow 

 that these ancient geological specimens are of extinct 

 sorts. 



LAGERSTRCEMIA— Crape Myrtle. 



THIS constitutes a small genus of the ovd&r Lythracea, 

 consisting of about a dozen species, all natives 

 of Asia, and but little known in cultivation. They 

 are mostly greenhouse plants, two or three only being suf- 



