Sassafras. 



LAURACEtE. 



159 



appear earlier than the others. Flowers in clustered corymbose racemes, at the extremity of 

 the last year's shoots, greenish yellow : pedicels 3-6 lines long, villous, with long linear 

 villous bracts at the base. Calyx expanded ; the sepals oblong, obtuse. Sterile fl. Stamens 

 nearly as long as the calyx ; each anther opening by four little valves which are recurved 

 upward ; the three inner ones with six orange-colored roundish glands at their base. Fertile 

 fl. Stamens 6, in a single series, half the length of the calyx, imperfect. Fruit ovoid, dark 

 blue when mature ; the pedicels much thickened below the flower, and of a bright purplish 

 red color, the pulp thin, and containing a fixed aromatic oil. 



Woods and banks of rivers, south and west of Troy. Fl. April - May. Fr. September. 

 The Sassafras has long been an article of the materia medica. Its virtues reside in a volatile 

 fragrant oil which is contained in every part of the tree, but particularly in the bark of the 

 root. The roots are chiefly used in the preparation of the compound decoction of guiacum, 

 and certain diet drinks. The volatile oil is used as a stimulant and sudorific in chronic 

 rheumatism and other diseases. (See Bigelow's ?ned. hot.; also Wood and Bache's U. S. 

 Dispens. p. 591.) 



2. BENZOIN. Nees, sijst. Law. p. 493 ; Endl. gen. 2057. wild allspice. 



[ So named because its fragrance resembles that of the resinous substance benzoin.'] 



Flowers dioecious, with deciduous involucrate scales at the base. Calyx 5 - 6-parted, 

 membranaceous, deciduous. Sterile fl. Fertile stamens 9, in three series : anthers 

 2-celled ; the six exterior simple ; the three (and sometimes the five) inner dilated and 

 1 - 2-lobed at the base, each lobe bearing a reniform or somewhat peltate gland. "Fertile 

 fl. Sterile stamens 15-18, filiform, acute, alternating with smaller spatulate ones" {Nees). 

 Ovary globose-ovoid : style short : stigma capitate, 2-lobed. Drupe obovoid, with a crusta- 

 ceous endocarp ; the pedicel not thickened. — Trees or shrubs, with entire deciduous leaves. 

 Flowers greenish yellow, in small fasciculate umbels, appearing before the leaves. 



1. Benzoin odoriferum, Nees. Wild Allspice. Fever-bush. Spice-bush. 



Leaves oblong-obovate, pale underneath, nearly smooth; flowers in glomerate minute umbels, 

 the involucre and pedicels smooth. — Nees, syst. Laur. p. 497 ; Hook. fl. Bor-Am. 2. p. 137. 

 Laurus Benzoin, Linn. sp. 1. p. 370 ; Pursh, fl. I. p. 276 ; Nutt. gen. 1. p. 259 ; Ell. sk. 

 1. p. 463 ; Bart. veg. mat. med. p. 2. t. 33 ; Torr. fl. 1. p. 409 ; Bigel. fl. Bosl. p. 160 ; 

 Beck, hot. p. 305 ; Darlingt. fl. Cest. p. 253. L. Pseudo-Benzoin, Michx. fl. I. p. 243. 



A shrub 6-10 feet high, with smooth virgate brittle branches. Leaves 3-5 inches long 

 and 1-2 inches wide, acute, acuminate or sometimes rather obtuse, very thin, smooth except 

 a slight pubescence on the veins. Flowers in numerous small sessile umbels. Involucrate 

 scales oblong, concave, enclosing 4-6 flowers on short pedicels. Sepals 5-6. Stamens 

 9 : filaments of the six exterior mostly subulate ; of the three inner, 2-lobed at the base, or 



