35 
No. 154. 
Cinnamomum Oliveri, Bailey. 
Oliver’s Sassafras. 
(Family LAURACE^E), 
Botanical description.— Genus, Cinnamomum , Burm. 
Florvers usually more or less unisexual. 
Perianth-segments 6, equal or nearly so. 
Stamens of the outer series 6, all perfect with introrse anthers, of the inner series 3 perfect, with 
extrorse anthers, alternating with 3 short staminodia; anthers 4-celled, or the inner ones 
rarely 2-celled; glands 6, at the base of the inner perfect stamens. 
Ovary not immersed. 
Berry seated on the somewhat enlarged truncate or 6-lobed perianth-tube, the segments wholly 
or partially deciduous. Trees or shrubs. 
Leaves opposite or often more or less alternate on the same tree, 3-nerved or rarely 5-nerved. 
Flowers in axillary panicles, more or less unisexual, the females usually rather larger and fewer 
in the panicle with the stamens slightly imperfect, the males smaller and more numerous 
with a sterile ovary. 
The numbers of parts of the perianth and of the stamens liable to occasional variation, 
especially in the females. ( B.Fl . v, 303.) 
Botanical description. —Species, C. Oliveri (after Prof. D. Oliver), Bail. Bot. 
Bull, v, 25 (May, 1392). 
“Sassafras.”—A tall tree, glabrous, except the inflorescence, trunk erect, bark containing 
nodules, smoothish, rather thin and fragrant. 
Leaves opposite or nearly so, lanceolate, attaining about 8 inches in length, and then scarcely 
over 1£ inch broad in the widest part, colour pale, the apex blunt or minutely emarginate, 
on petioles of about \ inch which are flattened, the upper surface glossy, the under surface 
of lighter colour, midrib flattish, the primary lateral nerves very oblique, few, the basal pair 
faint, and very near the margin until lost in the reticulation about half-way up the leaf. 
Inflorescence terminal, or in the upper axils, in loose elongated panicles 6 to 8 inches long ; 
flowers in twos or threes at the ends of the branchlets, the pedicels about a line long. 
Flower velvety, cx’eam-coloured, perianth-tube slender, about 2| lines long, the lobes equal, 
scarcely as long as the tube, marked by several longitudinal nerves. 
Stamens 9 ; the six outer ones about as long as the perianth-lobes, filaments flattened and hairy, 
the 3 inner ones short, with prominent glands upon the hairy filaments. 
Staminodia with sagittate heads and hairy filaments like the stamens. 
Style and ovary nearly or quite glabrous ; stigma dilated. 
Berry about 4 lines long, oval, partially sunk in the slightly enlarged calyx-tube from which the 
lobes have fallen. (Bailey’s The Queensland Flora, Part iv, p. 1308.) 
C 
