552 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



yellow colour, and are in naked, downy racemes, having subulate, deciduous bracts at 

 their base. The calyx is six-parted, permanent at base. The sterile flowers have nine 

 stamens, the fertile only six, with a simple style. The fruit is an oval drupe of a deep 

 blue colour, supported in the permanent base of the calyx on* the thick, red, clavate pe- 

 duncle. 



The Sassafras is found in most parts of the United States, and extends into 

 Mexico. To the north it is a mere shrub, whilst to the south it attains a height 

 of from thirty to fifty feet. Its time of flowering in the Middle States is the 

 end of April or beginning of May. Its flowers have an agreeable, but not a 

 powerful odour, and are much employed in domestic practice, in the form of 

 a decoction, as a " purifier of the blood" in the spring. The officinal por- 

 tions in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia are the bark of the root, and the pith of the 

 young branches ; the foreign authorities also recognise the wood. 



The pith is in slender cylindrical pieces, very spongy and light, with a 

 mucilaginous and somewhat aromatic taste. When placed in water it affords 

 a clear mucilage of a peculiar character, not being affected by alcohol. This 

 mucilage is principally used as an application to inflamed eyes, and is very 

 soothing and effectual in the removal of the irritation so constant in this com- 

 plaint. It may also be advantageously used in disorders of the respiratory 

 organs, bowels, and bladder, as a demulcent drink. In the bowel complaints 

 of children I think it more efficacious than that prepared from the leaves of 

 the Benne. 



The bark is usually found in the shops, in small fragments, either having or 

 deprived of the epidermis, of a reddish- brown colour, brittle, of a very fra- 

 grant odour, and a sweetish and pleasant aromatic taste. It owes its properties 

 to the presence of a volatile oil, which is of a- yellow colour, when first ob- 

 tained, but becomes darker by age. It is one of the heaviest of the volatile 

 oils. 



Medical Uses, $~c. — The bark is stimulant and diaphoretic, and is used in 

 combination with other articles as Guaiacum, Sarsaparilla, &c, in cutaneous, 

 rheumatic, and venereal complaints. In the latter class of diseases it was 

 at one time deemed a specific, but is now seldom or never used alone. The 

 oil has been employed in the same maladies, and is a constituent of the com- 

 pound extract of Sarsaparilla. Dr. B. S. Barton states that it has been found 

 an efficacious application to wens. (Collections, i. 19.) 



Mr. Nuttall (Gen. i. 259), mentions another species under the name of 

 albida, which closely resembles the present, and states that the root is of a 

 white colour and much more powerful, and that its leaf-buds are very mucila- 

 ginous. 



The species spoken of by Martius (Travels, ii. 96), as common in the woods 

 of Brazil, is probably a different species, and that noticed by Loureiro (Flor. 

 Cock. i. 254) as employed by the natives as a sudorific and diuretic, would 

 seem to be what has since been described by Jack, under thename of Laurus 

 parthenozylon, which is the L. porrecta, Roxburgh, and L. pseudo- sassafras, 

 of Blume, now placed by Nees in the present genus, under the specific name 

 bestowed upon it by Mr. Jack. 



Benzoin. — Nees. 



Flowers polygamous, involucrated. Fertile, with the calyx 6-parted, the segments equal 

 and permanent. Stamens 9, in three rows ; anthers ovate, 2-celled, introrse. Glands 

 6 — 9, in two or three rows, with a reniform, compressed head. Sterile flowers smaller than 

 the fertile, with 12 sterile stamens, with spathulate bodies dispersed among them. Fruit 

 succulent, seated on the permanent calyx, 1-seeded. 



