436 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 
with diccious or polygamous flowers. The stamens are free; but 
the anthers of all are four-celled and introrse, and there are no in- 
terior sterile stamens. The fruit (fig. 255) is nearly naked, and its 
Sassafras officinale. 
Fig. 254. 
Male flower, diagram. 
Fia. 253. Fria. 255. 
Leaf. Fruit (2). 
base is surrounded by the persistent perianth and receptacle sur- 
mounting a dilated, club-shaped pedicel. The leaves (fig. 258) are 
caducous and three-ribbed, and polymorphous, some entire, others 
lobed. The inflorescences are accompanied by scaly bracts which 
envelope them completely when young. This genus contains but 
two species, of which the best known is the Sassafras-tree (9. offci- 
nalis'), » fine tree from North America. The genus Sassafridium? 
differs from the preceding one in its flowers being hermaphrodite, 
not diclinous, in its non-persistent perianth, and in its possessing 
1 Sassaffras officinale Ners, Syst., 488.— Persea Sassaffras Sprunc., Syst. ii. 270.— 
Laurus Sassafras L., Hort. Cliff, 154; Mat. Cornus mas odorata, &c., PLUEN., Almag., 222 
Med., 108.—Busckw., Herb., t. 267.—Nuxs, t. 6.—Caress., Carol., i. 55, t. 55. , ; 
Pl, Offie., t. 131.—Hayne, Arzn., 12, t. 19.— ?Merssn., Prodr., 171. 
