218 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
butic, and sudorific ; and is thought efficacious in purifying 
the blood. It was formerly in great repute with practitioners 
abroad, and large quantities of the bark of the roots were 
shipped to England ; but the demand has of late greatly 
decreased. 
The Sassafras is a very agreeable tree to the eye, decked 
as it is with its glossy, deep green, oval, or three-lobed 
leaves. When fully grown, it is also quite picturesque for 
a tree of so moderate a size ; as its branches generally have 
an irregular, somewhat twisted look, and the head is par- 
tially flattened, and considerably varied in outline. After 
ten years of age, this tree always looks older than it really 
is, from its rough, deeply cracked, gray bark, and rather 
crooked stem. It often appears extremely well on the 
borders of a plantation, and mixes well with almost any of 
the heavier, deciduous trees. As it is by no means so com- 
mon a tree as many of those already noticed, it is generally 
the more valued, and may frequently be seen growing along 
the edges of cultivated fields and pastures, appearing to 
thrive well in any good mellow soil. 
The Catalpa Tree. Catalpa. 
Nat. Ord. Bignoniacese. Lin. Syst. Diandria, Monogynia. 
A native of nearly all the states south and west of Vir- 
ginia, this tree has now become naturalized also throughout 
the middle and eastern sections of the Union, where it is 
generally planted for ornament. 
In Carolina it is called the Catawba tree, after the Cataw- 
