DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
211 
greatly used in making charcoal for the manufacture of 
gunpowder. 
It is almost unnecessary to say that all the willows grow 
readily from slips or truncheons planted in the ground. So 
tenacious of life are they, that examples are known where 
small trees have been taken up and completely inverted, by 
planting the branches and leaving the roots exposed, which 
have nevertheless thrown out new roots from the former 
tops, and the roots becoming branches, the tree grew again 
with its ordinary vigor. 
The Sassafras Tree. Laurus. 
Nat. Ord. Lauraees. Lin. Syst. Enneandria, Monogynia. 
The Sassafras is a neat tree of the middle size, belonging 
to the same family as the European laurel or Sweet bay ; 
it is found, more or less plentifully, through the whole 
territory of the United States. In favorable soils, along 
the banks of the Hudson, it often grows to 40 or 50 feet in 
height ; but in the woods it seldom reaches that altitude. 
The flowers are yellow, and appear in small clusters in 
May, and the fruit is a small, deep blue berry, seated on a 
red footstalk or cup. The bark of the wood and roots has 
an agreeable smell and taste, and is a favorite ingredient, 
with the branches of the spruce, in the small beer made by 
the country people. Medicinally, it is considered anti- 
scorbutic 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 greatlv decreased. 
