The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland/Volume 3/Sassafras
SASSAFRAS
- Sassafras, Nees ab Esenbeck u. Ebermaier, Handb. Med. Pharm. Bot. i. 418 (1830); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Pl. iii. 160 (1880).
Deciduous trees belonging to the order Lauraceæ, with alternate pinnately-veined simple leaves without stipules. Flowers dicecious or rarely perfect, in few-flowered racemes in the axils of bud-scales at the ends of the previous year's shoots. Calyx six-lobed, the lobes in two series, imbricated in bud; petals absent. Staminate flowers; stamens nine in three series, the three inner ones each with two stalked glands at the base; anthers opening with four valves. Pistillate flowers with flattened ovate pointed or slightly two-lobed staminodes, or occasionally with fertile stamens like those of the male flowers; ovary ovoid, glabrous, superior, one-celled; ovule solitary, suspended; one style elongated with a capitate stigma. Fruit an oblongovoid, one-seeded dark-blue berry, surrounded at the base by the enlarged and thickened calyx-limb, and supported on pedicels much thickened above the middle.
The genus comprises only two species, one occurring in North America and the other in China.
SASSAFRAS TZUMU, Chinese Sassafras
- Sassafras Tzumu, Hemsley, in Kew Bull. 1907, p. 55, and in Hooker, Icon. Plant. t. 2833 (1907).
- Litsea laxiflora, Hemsley, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxvi. 383, t. 8 (1891).
- Lindera Tzumu, Hemsley, op. cit. 392 (1891).
This species grows sparingly in China in mountain woods at 3000 to 5000 feet elevation, south-west of Ichang, in the province of Hupeh; near Kiukiang in Kiangsi; and inland from Ningpo in Chekiang. It attains a height of 50 feet and yields a timber esteemed by the mountaineers, who call it the tzu-mu or huang ch'iu tree. Resembling very closely the American species in the characters of the foliage and inflorescence, it was considered by Prof. Sargent[1] and Mr. E.H. Wilson to be indistinguishable. Mr. Hemsley, however, points out certain differences in the floral organs, which entitle it to rank as a distinct species. The flowers are slightly smaller than those of the American tree, and are pubescent within and not glabrous as in that species. The male flowers have three staminodes alternating with the glandular row of stamens and a prominent pistillode, which are wanting in Sassafras officinale. The female flowers have twelve staminodes in three rows of six, three, and three; only six staminodes in two rows of three each occurring in the American species.
There is a tree of this species, 10 feet high, growing in the Coombe Wood nursery, which was raised from seed sent by Wilson in 1900. It has made wonderful growth during the past summer, and is very handsome. It differs from the American species in having glabrous non-ciliate leaves, which are very lustrous on the upper surface; and the young branchlets are also devoid of pubescence.
SASSAFRAS OFFICINALE, Sassafras
- Sassafras officinale, Nees ab Esenbeck u. Ebermaier, loc. cit.; Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal Plants, iii, 220 (1880).
- Sassafras Sassafras, Karsten, Pharm. Med. Bot. 505 (1882); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. vii. 17, tt. 304, 305 (1895), and Trees N. Amer. 337 (1905).
- Sassafras variifolium, O. Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. ii. 574 (1891); Sargent, in Bot. Gazette, xliv. 226 (1907).
- Laurus Sassafras, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 371 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1301 (1838).
A tree, attaining in America 90 feet in height and 18 feet in girth. Bark,[2] according to Sargent, dark red-brown, deeply and irregularly divided into broad scaly ridges. Young shoots green or reddish, pubescent when young, becoming glabrous, remaining green in the second year. Leaves (Plate 199, Fig. 5) deciduous, entire, or two- to three-lobed; the entire leaves oval with an obtuse apex and cuneate base; the others obovate, with a large triangular or oblong lobe on one or both sides, directed forwards and outwards; margin entire or repand, ciliate; upper surface dark green with a scattered short pubescence; lower surface pale with a long pubescence, often falling by the end of summer; petiole, 1 to 2 inches long, pubescent. The nerves are pinnate, the two lowest arising near the base of the leaf, running nearly parallel with the margin, and ending in the lobes when these are present.
Berry[3] gives an account with illustrations of the extraordinary variation which occurs in the leaves of wild trees growing in America. He has found leaves with four, five, and even six lobes.
Seedling
Out of some seed gathered by Elwes at the Arnold Arboretum late in September and sown at Colesborne in October 1904, only one germinated in the following June, and the seedling showed the following characters in August:—The cotyledons remain in the seed-case, the young stem emerging between them after the splitting of the seed into two halves. The terete glabrous and reddish stem first gives off alternately two minute scales, which are succeeded by true leaves; the first, ½ inch long, arising 1½ inch above the ground, is half-oval in shape, one side of the leaf being scarcely developed, entire in margin, and on a short stalk about } inch long. The second leaf, ¾ inch long, is obovate-spathulate, entire in margin, very unequalsided, rounded at the apex, and tapering at the base. Succeeding leaves (six in all being produced by August) are oval, 1½ to 2½ inches long, stalked, unequal-sided, pinnately-veined, slightly undulate in margin; pale green and glabrous, with a raised midrib beneath.
Identification
In summer Sassafras is readily distinguishable by the aromatic leaves of different shapes, entire and two- to three-lobed, and by the branchlets, without stipules or their scars, remaining green for two or three years. In winter (Plate 200, Fig. 6) the following characters are available:—Twigs glabrous, green, shining, brittle, and strongly aromatic in odour when broken; lenticels few and inconspicuous; pith wide and mucilaginous. Leaf-scars alternate, oblique on prominent pulvini, very small, semicircular with a raised rim, and showing a transverse band of minute coalesced bundle-dots. Terminal buds ovoid, with a long sharp beak; external scales, four to five, imbricated, slightly pubescent, ciliate, green, often ridged or veined. Lateral buds minute, arising from the twigs at about an angle of 45°. Base of the shoot marked by ring-like scars, indicating where the scales of the previous season's terminal bud have' fallen off. (A.H.)
Distribution
Sassafras occurs usually in rich, sandy, well-drained soil; and is widely spread in the eastern half of the United States, crossing into Canada in Southern Ontario. The northern limit passes through the southern parts of Maine, Vermont, and Ontario to Central Michigan, whence the western limit is continued through Eastern Kansas and the Indian Territory, to the valley of the Brazos river in Texas. On the eastern side it extends from Maine to Central Florida. In the South Atlantic and Gulf States it often takes possession of abandoned fields.
In America the tree is very handsome at all seasons of the year, the light green foliage of summer turning delicate shades of yellow, orange, and red in autumn. The fruit, which is abundantly produced in some years, is showy, the berries dark blue in colour contrasting with the scarlet cups in which they sit. The tree produces rootsuckers very freely.
In New England the Sassafras does not often become a tree of considerable size. Emerson[4] states that it rarely reaches 30 feet in height by a foot in diameter, and Michaux says that near Portsmouth, N.H., it is only a tall shrub rarely exceeding 15 to 20 feet high. But near Boston it sometimes grows much larger, and Emerson mentions one which grew at West Cambridge in 1842, and measured nearly 60 by 8 to 9 feet, with a clean straight stem 30 feet long. This tree was felled in order, as he says, "to allow a wall to run in a straight line." But such vandalism as this, which a generation ago was common in New England, is now disappearing; and great care is taken of the few surviving old trees of the original forest. Tree wardens are appointed in most parishes, who are often ladies; and I am indebted to one of the most enthusiastic and active of them, Miss Emma G. Cummings of Brookline, Mass., for showing me some of the large Sassafras trees which still survive in the suburbs of Boston. These form a group on a slope on the south side of Covey Hill, the smallest being 6 feet in girth, and the largest 9 feet 7 inches and over 50 feet high. But these are far inferior to the trees in the forests of the south and west, where Ridgway measured, in the Wabash valley, a Sassafras 95 feet high by 7½ in girth, and where, he says, it sometimes attains 12 feet in circumference.
Cultivation
The Sassafras was one of the earliest American trees introduced into England, having been cultivated in 1633 in a garden near London.[5] The tree is propagated by seeds, which should be sown as soon as ripe, and by suckers and root-cuttings. When large it is difficult to transplant, as the thick fleshy roots are scantily provided with rootlets.
Cobbett,[6] who gave an interesting account of the Sassafras, and was very enthusiastic in its praise, found that the seeds rarely if ever come up in the first year, and apparently often lie over for two years. Fresh seeds gathered by me in the Arnold Arboretum and sown in autumn, only produced one seedling in the first year, and no more have since germinated. This seedling though kept in a greenhouse grows very slowly, and at three years old is only 10 inches high. But though the tree is now rare in England there is no reason why it should not be grown on rich sandy soil in those districts where the summers are warm and dry, if young trees can be procured and established.
Remarkable Trees
The only really fine specimen of this species that we have seen in England is in the garden at Claremont, the seat of H.R.H. the Duchess of Albany. This is a handsome, healthy tree which in 1907 measured 48 feet by 6 feet 8 inches at 1 foot from the ground. It forks low down, and the main stem is 4 feet 10 inches at 5 feet. This tree flowers freely in the month of May, but Mr. Burrell has observed no seeds on it (Plate 146). A tree formerly grew at Beeston Hall, near Norwich, which Grigor states to have been 38 feet high in 1840, but this, as I am informed by Mr. Wall, the gardener there, died and was taken down about 1808.
There are four small trees in Mr. Friedlander's garden at White Knights Park, Reading, which appear to be suckers from the roots of an older one now dead; and in the adjoining properties, White Knights and the Wilderness, there are also trees of which the tallest is about 35 feet by 2 feet 10 inches. There isa younger tree in Mrs. Robb's grounds at Goldenfield, Liphook, and a small one in Kew Gardens planted by Sir W.T. Thiselton-Dyer. There is also a healthy young tree at Tortworth.
Plate 146.
SASSAFRAS AT CLAREMONT
Medicinal properties
An interesting article on this tree by Prof. Sargent, with a figure of the trunk of an old one on Long Island showing the peculiar bark, is given in Garden and Forest, vii. 215; and from this I take the following:—
The Sassafras is one of the most interesting trees of eastern North America. The last survivor of a race which at an earlier period of the earth's history was common to the two hemispheres, it is the only tree in a large family which has been able to maintain itself in a region of severe winter cold. Towards the middle of the sixteenth century the French in Florida heard from the Indians wonderful accounts of the curative properties of a tree which they called Pavame, and which for no obvious reasons the Europeans called Sassafras. The tree and its virtues were first described by the Spanish physician, Nicholas Monardes, in his Natural History of the New World, published in Seville in 1569.
The reputation of the roots and wood as a sovereign cure for most human maladies soon spread through Europe, and extraordinary efforts were made to procure them. To collect Sassafras was one of the objects of the English expedition which landed in Massachusetts in 1602, and eight years later Sassafras is mentioned among the articles to be sent home, in the instructions of the English Government to the officers of the young colony in Virginia.
For nearly two centuries the reputation of Sassafras was maintained, and many medical treatises have extolled its virtues, though now it is generally recognised as simply a mild aromatic stimulant. Recently the thick pith of the young branches has been found to yield a mucilage useful to oculists, as it can be combined with alcohol and subacetate of lead without causing their precipitation. The oil of Sassafras, obtained from the wood and roots by distillation, is used to perfume soap and other articles; and perhaps after all the most useful product of the Sassafras tree is the yellow powder prepared from the leaves by the Choctaw Indians of Louisiana, used to give peculiar flavour and consistency to "Gumbo filé," one of the best products of the Creole kitchen.
Timber
The wood has little or no economic value and is unknown in Europe. Michaux says that it was never seen in the lumber yard, and was only occasionally used for joists, rafters, and bedsteads; and that it is not attacked by beetles on account of the odour, which it preserves as long as it is kept dry. Ashe says it is light, soft, weak, brittle, and coarse-grained, very durable in contact with the soil, and apt to crack in drying. But the unusual orange-brown colour of the heartwood seems to me to give it a value for ornamental carpentry, if it can be procured of sufficient size. (H.J.E.)