314 
Structure  of  Sassafras. 
Am.  .lour.  Pharm . 
June,  1895. 
The  tree  is  dioecious  and  the  inconspicuous  flowers  appear  in  early 
spring,  before  or  with  the  leaves.  They  are  arranged  in  clustered 
corymb-like  racemes  which  are  involucrate  with  scaly  bracts.  The 
sepals,  six  in  number  and  spreading,  are  yellowish-green,  and  in  the 
staminate  flowers  the  nine  stamens  are  inserted  in  three  whorls  on 
c 
Fig.  2. 
the  base  of  the  calyx.  The  stamens  of  the  inner  whorl  differ  from 
the  rest  in  bearing  at  the  base  of  each  filament  a  pair  of  stalked 
glands,  probably  representing  stipules.  The  anthers  of  all  the  sta- 
mens are  introrse  and  have  two  pairs  of  loculi,  one  pair  smaller  and 
superposed  over  the  other,  and  the  loculi  dehisce  by  valves. 
