LAURACEyE— laurel family 



SPICE-BUSH. CAROLINA ALLSPICE. BENJAMIN-BUSH 



Benzoin benzoin. Lindera benzoin. 



Named for John Linder, a Swedish botanist of the eighteenth 

 century. Benzoin refers to its aromatic odor, somewhat 

 resembling that of gum-benzoin. 



Tall, well-shaped, four to twelve feet high. Found in damp 

 woods throughout New England, westward as far as Michigan 

 and Kansas and southward. Leaves, fruit and bark are aromatic. 

 Easily cultivated. 



Bark. — Branchlets at first bright green, smooth, later olive 

 green, sometimes pearly gray, finally grayish brown. Branches 

 are long, tapering and brittle. 



Winter buds. — Flower and leaf buds distinct. Leaf buds 

 small, one-eighth of an inch long, acute, solitary. Flower buds 

 globose, in groups of two to five. 



Leaves. — Alternate, simple, pinnately veined, three to six inches 

 long, one and one-half to three wide, oval, oblong-oval, or obovate, 

 wedge-shaped at base, entire, abruptly acute, sometimes rounded 

 at apex ; midvein, primary and secondary veins depressed above, 

 prominent beneath. They come out of the bud revolute, ciliate at 

 margin, pale green ; when full grown are dull dark green above, 

 pale or glaucous green below. In autumn they turn a clear 

 bright yellow. Petiole about half an inch long, terete. 



Flowers. — March, April; before the leaves. Polygamo- 

 dicecious, greenish yellow, small, borne in almost sessile umbel- 

 like clusters in the axils of last year's leaves. Each cluster is 

 made up of secondary clusters of four to six flowers, surrounded 

 by an involucre of four deciduous scales. 



