The Sassafras. 



comes into bloom very early in the spring, and is covered 

 all over with large bunches of yellow flowers, each flower 

 rather insignificant in itself, but the whole making a very 

 gay show. In the fall of the year, in the month of October 

 in Long Island, the seeds become ripe ; they stand upon 

 stalks of a red colour, at the end of which there are red 

 cups, very much in the form of an ale-glass, and into the 

 cups the small end of the berry, which is precisely of the 

 shape of a hen's egg, and which is of a deep purple colour; 

 into this red cup, of the shape of an ale 'glass, the small 

 end of the purple egg just enters, and is apparently there 

 held by nothing. The tree, at this season, is still more 

 beautiful than in the spring, if you come near it; for, 

 though it is generally loaded with seeds, these cannot be 

 seen from a distance, like the flowers, which come out in 

 the spring, while the leaves are very young and small. As 

 soon as the berries become purple, they are ripe ; and, as 

 soon as they are ripe, they are, if you wait one single day 

 too long, devoured by the birds. 



497. It is very singular that so beautiful a tree should 

 have so long continued to be so rare in England as it is. I 

 never saw but two in England, one in Kew Gardens, and 

 the other in a little garden which, when I saw it, belonged 

 to the Dowager Lady Lonsdale, near the Banks of the 

 Thames, in Fulham Parish. I first saw this tree about 

 twenty years ago. 1 saw it again about five years back, 

 and it was grown very much. After my return from Ame- 

 rica, in 1819, I asked a nurseryman how he sold young 

 Sassafras plants ? He told me that he had none, and that 

 such a thing was not to be had under a guinea, or half-a- 

 guinea at the least. I asked him why he did not import 

 the seed from America ? and he told me that that was of 

 no use, for that it could not be made to grow ; but that he 



