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SWEET LEAF. 
Polyadelphia polyandria. Lînn. Guaiacanece. Jess. 
Hofea tinctoria. IT. foliis lanceolato-ovatis, subserratis, nitidis ; fioribm luteis ; 
fructibus cazruleis. 
I first observed the Sweet Leaf near Petersburg in Virginia. It is 
common in West Tennessee and in the upper part of the Carolinas and of 
Georgia; but it is still more abundant within the limits which I have 
assigned to the pine-barrens, where the soil is light and the winter less 
rigorous than at a greater distance from the sea. 
This tree is known only by the name of Sweet Leaf. It varies in size 
according to the situation in which it grows ; on the banks of the Savannah 
and on the borders of the large swamps, where the soil is deep, loose and 
fertile, I have seen it 25 or 30 feet high and 7 or 8 inches in diameter at 
the height of 5 feet. Commonly it does not exceed half these dimensions, 
and in the pine-barrens, where it is profusely multiplied, it is sometimes 
only 3 or 4' feet in height. The sprouts from the trunks consumed in the 
annual conflagration of the forests never surpass this height, and, as they 
do not fructify, the tree is multiplied by its running roots, which shoot at 
the distance of a few feet. 
The trunk of the Sweet Leaf is clad in a smooth bark, and, if wounded 
in the spring, distils a milky fluid of an unpleasant odor. The wood is 
not hard and is totally useless. The leaves are 3 or 4 inches long, smooth, 
thick, alternate, of an elongated oval shape, slightly denticulated, and of 
a 1 sugary taste. In sheltered situations they persist during two or three 
years, but in the pine-barrens they turn yellow with the first frost, and 
fall toward the beginning of February. In the meantime they are eagerly 
devoured by horses and cows turned loose into the forests after the herbage 
has perished. 
The flowers spring from the base of the leaves, and appear early in the 
season : they are yellowish, sweet-scented, and composed of a great number 
of stamina shorter than the petals and united in separate groups at the base. 
The fruit is cylindrical, minute, and a deep blue color at its maturity. 
