SASSAFRAS. 



535 



A tea-spoonful of the powdered root, with a 

 little cinnamon or mace, may be given twice or 

 thrice a day. It also yields its virtues to spirit 

 of wine and water, and a tea-spoonful or two of 

 the tincture is also a common dose. 



Cats are particularly fond of the odour of this 

 root, and seem to be fascinated, as it were, when 

 it is presented to them. It is said also that rats 

 are equally attracted by its odour, and that rat- 

 catchers employ it as a means of snaring these 

 animals. This liking probably depends upon 

 some sexual analogy of smell which the root 

 presents to them. 



Several of the species of this family of plants 

 are cultivated as ornaments to the garden 

 borders. 



Sassafras (laurus sassafras). Natural family 

 lawridicB; enneandria, monogynia, of Linnteus. 

 This plant resembles the laurel, to which family 

 it belongs. It attains the height of twenty-five 

 feet, and is above a foot in diameter, but in 

 general it is of much less growth, and is divided 

 towards the top into several crooked branches. 

 Tlie bark of the young shoots ia smooth and 

 green ; of the old trunks it is rough and furrowed, 

 and of a light ash colour. The leaves vary ; some 

 being oval, others divided into three lobes ; they 

 are of a pale green, downy on the under side, and 

 placed alternately in long footstalks. The flowers 

 are produced in pendent spikes or panicles, which 

 spring from the extremities of the shoots of the 

 preceding year. They appear in May and June, 

 and are generally male and female upon dif- 

 ferent trees; the fruit is a berry like that of 

 tlie cinnamon. 



This tree is a native of North America, and 

 appears to have been cultivated in England 

 sometime before the year 1633; for in Johnston's 

 edition of Gerard he says, "I have given the 

 figure of a branch taken from a little sassafras 

 tree which grew in the garden of Mr Welmot 

 at Bon." It is said that this tree was first dis- 

 covered by the Spaniards when they took pos- 

 session of Florida, and the first import of the wood 

 into Spain was about the year 1560, when it 

 acquired great reputation for curing various dis- 

 eases. It is now usually imported here in long 

 straight pieces, very light, of a spongy texture, 

 and covered with a rough fungous bark. It has 

 a fragrant smell, and a sweetish, aromatic, 

 subacid taste. The root, wood, and bark agree 

 in their medicinal qualities, but the bark has 

 most fragrance, and is thought to be more power- 

 ful than the wood. Distilled with spirits, a fra- 

 grant essential oil of a penetrating nature is pro- 

 cured, and so heavy as to sink in water. It 

 yields its principles less completely to water, 

 though a decoction of the wood is that frequently 

 ordered. Its effects on the system seem to be 

 slightly stimulant and sudorific, promoting the 

 general secretions, but not showingmuch activity. 



Indeed it is now seldom used, except conjoined 

 with other more active medicines in rheumatism, 

 gout, and affections of the skin. A tincture is 

 made by dissolving the bark and wood in recti- 

 fied spirits, and in this, way the whole properties 

 of the plant are best obtained. 



Sarsaparilla (smilax sarsaparilla). Natural 

 family sermentacece ; dicecia, hexandria, of Lin- 



SarsaparilJa. 



UEBus. This plant is a native of America, 

 although another species, s. aspera, very similar 

 in all respects, is common in the south of 

 Europe. 



The root is perennial, divided into several 

 branches which are somewhat thicker than a 

 goose quiU, straight, externally brown, internally 

 white, and three or four feet in length. The 

 stalks are shrubby, long, trailing, and beset with 

 spines. The leaves are oval and pointed. The 

 flowers are male and female, on different plants. 

 The calyx of both flowers is bell-shaped and six 

 lobed. The fruit is a round, three-celled berry, 

 containing two seeds. The root, which is the 

 medicinal part, has a farinaceous, somewhat bit- 

 terish taste, and no smell. To water it communi- 

 cates a reddish brown, to rectified spirits a 

 yellowish red tincture, but imparts no taste to 

 either. This root was introduced into Spain 

 nearly three centuries ago, as an undoubted cure 

 for syphilis and other diseases, as rheumatism 

 and scrofula, and aff^ections of the skin. Like 

 many other remedies, however, its virtues in 

 time came to be disputed, and it was for a time 

 laid aside. Physicians are not even agreed in 

 the present day about its effects, some assert- 

 ing that its powers are considerable as an altera- 

 tive and restorer of the system, especially after 

 mercury has been administered, others holding 

 it as entirely inert. The common mode in 

 which the roots are used is as a decoction in 

 water, either alone or joined with sassafras and 

 guiacum. 



. Guiacum (O. officinalis) ; decandria, monogy- 

 nia of Linnaeus. This tree is a native of South 

 America, and the West Indian islands. It grows 

 to the height of forty feet, and four to five feet 

 in circumference sending off^ several large sub- 



