THE LINDENS AND LIQUIDAMBER 



The Indians were the first to use the bark 

 for curing inflammations, and its medicinal 

 virtues have long been recognized, in spite of 

 the fact that chemists consider that it has no 

 active medicinal properties. On the slopes of 

 some of the southern mountains the witch-hazel 

 becomes a small tree, although we are accus- 

 tomed to find it a rather straggling shrub in 

 our New England woods. 



The Latiracecs are an order of aromatic trees 

 and shrubs found chiefly in the tropics; of 

 trees there is a single genus of a single species 

 found in New England, — the sassafras. 



Sassafras ^ ^'"^^ common in rich woods. 



Sassafras variifolium It is I 5 tO I OO fcet fugll, witk a 



rough bark and twisted branches. Green twigs, 

 smooth and sweet scented, with an aromatic 

 mucilaginous juice. Large buds ; semi-oval, 

 semicircular, alternate leaf-scars. The Jlowers 

 come a little before the leaves unfold. The 

 aromatic fragrance is strongest in the bark 

 of the roots. 



Few trees are more interesting in winter 

 than the sassafras. The color of their smooth, 

 bare stems is an exquisite shade of green, the 

 terminal buds are large for the size of the 

 slender twigs and tiny leaf-scars, and the deli- 



147 



