LAURtrS SASSAFRAS. 
165 
■with in many of our botanical gardens, flowering in May and June ; 
but in this country it never rises to the height we are told it is some- 
times met with in its native soil, where it is said to grow to the 
height of twenty or thirty feet, and to measure twelve or fifteen 
inches in diameter. 
The bark of the trunk and older branches is rough, cracked, and 
of a grey or ash colour: that of the young shoots is smooth, and of 
a brown green ; the leaves vary much both in size and form, some 
being ovate, pointed and entire, and others divided into two or three 
lobes ; they arise alternately on the branches, are of a pale green 
colour, and stand upon footstalks, downy when young, but smoother 
as they attain age ; the flowers are produced in pendant panicles 
or spikes from the extremities of the shoots of the preceding years ; 
the corolla is divided into six narrow convex petals of a yellowish 
colour, and accompanied by linear pointed bracteas, which are 
placed at the base of the pedicles ; there is no calyx ; the filaments 
are short, bearing heart-shaped anthers ; the germen is roundish ; 
style simple ; the fruit is an ovate drupe, of a deep] blue colour 
when ripe. 
It is said the sassafras tree was first discovered by the Spaniards, 
in the year 1538, and the wood was first imported into Spain about 
the year 1560, where it acquired great reputation for curing various 
diseases, and it is said to have fetched so much as fifty livres per 
pound. It is imported into this country in long straight billets, 
covered with ?ts rough fungous bark. 
Sensible and Chemical Qualities, &c. Sassafras wood is 
light, spongy, and of a yellowish colour ; it has a peculiar fragrant 
smell, and a sweetish, aromatic, mucilaginous taste. These qualities 
reside in a volatile essential oil, which is obtained by distillation with 
water. The virtues of sassafras are extracted totally by spirit, 
but imperfectly by water. Rectified spirit extracts the whole taste 
and odour of sassafras, but elevates nothing in evaporation ; hence 
the spirituous extract proves the most efficacious preparation. The 
volatile oil smells powerfully of the wood,'' is of a yellowish colour, 
and so ponderous as to sink in water. The bark and young twigs 
abound with mucilage: a small quantity of the pith infused in a 
glass of water, is said to give it a ropy consistence like the white of 
* In some constitations the fragrance of sassafras is said to produce head-ache, and 
other unpleasant symptoms.— JEd. 
VOL. II. ^ ^ 
