312 
Structure  of  Sassafras. 
Am.  Jour.  Pnarm. 
June,  1895. 
STRUCTURE  OF  SASSAFRAS.—- 
By  Edson  S.  Bastin. 
This  American  tree  is  the  only  living  species  of  its  genus,  though 
the  fossil  remains  from  the  cretaceous  rocks  of  our  Northwest 
prove  that  there  were  once  several  at  least,  and  probably  the  genus 
was  once  as  abundant  in  species  as  are  now  the  oaks.  This  species 
has  probably  persisted  beyond  its  congeners  by  reason  of  its  ability 
to  endure  a  wide  range  of  conditions.  This  is  evidenced  by  the 
fact  that  it  thrives  almost  equally  in  the  austere  climate  of  Canada 
and  in  sub-tropical  Florida,  and  that  it  endures  almost  every  condi- 
tion found  in  the  forest  regions  between  these  Northern  and  South- 
ern limits,  and  between  the  great  plains  on  the  West  and  the 
Atlantic  coast  on  the  East. 
In  the  North  it  is  a  shrub,  in  middle  and  southern  latitudes  it  is 
a  tree,  often  with  a  trunk  that  attains  a  diameter  of  a  foot  or  more, 
and  a  height  of  fifty  or  sixty  feet.  Its  top,  when  growing  in  open 
ground,  is  also  dense  and  shapely,  so  that  the  tree  is  not  without 
value  as  an  ornament  to  our  parks  and  roadsides.  The  trunk  is 
covered  with  a  grayish,  strongly-fissured  bark,  but  the  twigs  re  mam 
green  for  several  years,  the  corky  layer  being  slow  to  form  beneath 
the  epidermis. 
The  alternate  exstipulate,  petiolate,  deciduous  leaves  are  remark- 
able for  the  variety  of  their  forms  on  the  same  tree.  Some  are 
entire,  oval  and  acute  or  obtuse,  while  others  are  more  or  less 
deeply  separated  into  two  or  three  unequal  lobes,  the  lateral  lobes 
being  the  shorter.  This  variability  in  the  foliage  of  the  tree  has 
given  origin  to  one  of  its  botanical  names,  that  recognized  in  the 
last  edition  of  our  Pharmacopoeia,  namely,  Sassafras  variifolium. 
This  tree,  in  fact,  well  illustrates  the  vicissitudes  of  our  botanical 
nomenclature.  In  the  earlier  editions  of  Gray's  Manual  we  find  it 
named  Laurus  sassafras,  following  Linnaeus.  In  the  later  editions 
it  is  called  Sassafras  officinale,  the  name  given  it  by  Nees.  Salis- 
bury named  it  Laurus  variifolius,  and  now  in  the  recent  "  List  of 
Pteridophyta  and  Spermaphyta,  growing  without  cultivation  in 
Northeastern  North  America,"  the  name  Sassafras  Sassafras  (Linne) 
Karsten,  is  adopted,  a  name  doubtless  applied  in  strict  accordance 
with  the  new  rules  for  botanical  nomenclature,  but  whose  unpleasant 
effect  upon  the  ear  could  not  well  be  endured  except  in  the  hope, 
that  sometime  between  now  and  the  millennium  our  botanical  nomen- 
clature will  acquire  something  like  a  stable  equilibrium. 
