78 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



hardness enabling the pins to be secure- 

 ly held. This timber merchant declares 

 that the wood of English-grown Plane 

 trees is far better for this purpose than 

 that of the American Plane, and that, 

 where the soil is good and warm in all 

 the southern parts of the country, it 

 might be well worth while to grow it 

 as a forest tree. Its rapidity of growth 

 and fine clear stem should place it in 

 the first rank, and the old wood is hand- 

 some, resembling walnut. Grown rather 

 closer together than is usual, the tim- 

 ber would be all the better and cleaner. 

 Spite of its great spreading head the 

 tree may be so massed that, while allow- 

 ing full play for upward growth, the 

 greatest mass of timber may be kept in 

 the boles. 



Botanical Synonyms of the Eastern Plane. — The 

 accepted name is that of Linnaeus — Platanus ovientalis : 

 which is the P.palmata of Mcench, P. hispanica of Tenore, 

 P. vulgaris of Spach, P. occidentalis of hort. (not Linnaeus), 

 P. insularis of de Candolle, P. ovientalis, var. insulavis, of 

 Kotschy, P. o. nepalcnsis of Wesmael, P. o. genuina of Wes- 

 mael, P. o. elongata of Aiton, P. laciniata of Courset, P. nepal- 

 ensis of Morren, P. nepalensis and elongata of gardens, and 

 P. umbraculifera of Leroy. Q Q ffe 



Planting Wind-swept Shores. — The merit of the 

 Monterey Pine (P.insignis) as a shore tree is well seen 

 at Bodorgan, in Anglesea, where many trees are in 

 rude health within a few yards of the sea. There is 

 nowhere a more wind- tortured shore judging by the 

 appearance of the few stunted native trees in the open 

 land, but planting of an effective kind has been done 

 almost on the seashore. At the water's edge is the 

 Sea Buckthorn, Furze, and Barberry, which first bar 

 the south-western gales and winds, and a few paces 

 within these, rows of Pines and Evergreen Oaks ap- 

 pear, and soon with the aid of these excellent shore 

 trees, almost any kind of evergreen planting may be 

 carried out. The whole place is most instructive as 

 regards planting near the sea. The contrast between 

 the wind-swept surface of the island and the noble 

 avenue of evergreen trees leading from the lodge to 

 the house is very striking. Such planting, however, 

 can only be carried out well where we plant a wood 

 and not a mere belt, the trees in the massed wood 

 protecting each other better than any artificial shelter 

 that could be devised. Into such a wood the wind 

 may tear fiercely, but is soon tamed down to some- 

 thing like gentleness. 



THE SASSAFRAS TREE. 



To see this beautiful tree at its best one must 

 lookforit in rich alluvial valleys, andin bottom- 

 lands along the great rivers of our Southern and 

 South-Western States. Neglected in the fence 

 corners, and along roadways in New England, 

 the Sassafras has degenerated into a straggling 

 shrub, seddom over 10 or 15 feet in height, 

 nibbled by rabbits, and browsed by cows, who 

 are very fond of rubbing against the aromatic 

 bark. But left to itself in rich moist soil, and 

 under the warmer skies of the South, it de- 

 velops into a lofty tree of noble proportions, 

 sometimes 1 2 5 feet in height and 7 feet in dia- 

 meter of trunk, while its spreading head, in um- 

 brella shape, shades a wide expanse of ground. 

 Neglected as it now is by American planters, yet 

 at one time no tree of the Western hemisphere 

 was more valued for thefabulous virtue thought 

 to reside in its bark. This may be becauseit does 

 not take kindly to the severe winters of New 

 England, where, though quite hardy, it seldom 

 becomes a tree. When the Spanish doctor, 

 Nicholas Monardes,first described the Sassafras 

 in his " Natural History of the New World," 

 published in Seville in 1 5 69, it sprang at once 

 into great repute as a sovereign remedy for all 

 diseases. The Indians had long used the bark 

 and roots of the Sassafras for medicine, and it 

 was from them that the French in Florida first 

 heard of its virtues about the middle of thesix- 

 teenth century. The Indians called it Pavame. 

 Soon all the vessels returning to Europe from 

 the New World carried a store of Sassafrax, as 

 the Spaniards called it, to enrich the pharma- 

 | copoeia of the day. The bark of the roots of 

 this tree is the most aromatic part of the plant. 

 The leaves and twigs are mucilaginous, and 

 Sassafras Tea is still a homely remedy in use in 

 many primitive neighbourhoods. Although 

 the belief in the virtues of Sassafras is not so 

 widespread as in the sixteenth century, when 

 many learned treatises were printdd in its hon- 

 our,yet it is still valued for its mildly stimulating 

 properties, and is considered a sovereign speci- 

 fic for strengthening the sight; oil of Sassafras 

 is used as an ingredient in some perfumes. 



But it is for its beauty that I would chiefly 

 extol it. Whoever has lived on intimate terms 

 with this tree cannot fail to love it. Fastidious 

 in its requirements, it belongs to an aristocratic 

 family— the Lauraceas, which gives us the 



