2. Genus OCOTEA, Aubl.
The Lancewood (Ocotea Catesbyana, Sarg.) is a little ever green laurel tree zo to 3o feet high, much like the swamp bay in flower and fruit. But its shoots are smooth, its leaves thin and lanceolate, and the lobes of the calyx have dried away under the berry. The flower stalks are bright red. The reddish-brown bark is warty. This tree is common on the shores and islands of the lower end of Florida, from Cape Canaveral on the east around to Cape Romano. It is abundant and of largest size near Bay Biscayne.
3. Genus UMBELLARIA, Nutt.
The California Laurel (Umbellaria Californica, Nutt.) is frequent among the broad-leaved maples in the forests of south western Oregon. It is a lover of wet soil, growing 8o to 90 feet high in rich bottom lands. It climbs the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and extends to the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California, reaching altitudes of 2,50o feet, but keeping generally along waterways.
The beauty and stateliness of this tree impress all those who look with eyes that see upon the varied forest flora of California. It is strikingly handsome in a land full of handsome trees. Its willow-like leaves are lustrous and rich in an aromatic oil, which causes them to burn even when piled green on a campfire. The flowers, small but fragrant, bloom in December and January. The plum-like purple fruits which fall in autumn have the peculiar habit of keeping their integrity long after the pit has germinated in the leaf mould under the tree. The plantlet has the distinction of being provided with a fresh fruit lunch which does not decay and disappear until well into the following summer.
The tree is planted in parks and gardens of California, and in southern Europe. Its wood is esteemed one of the most beautiful and valuable in the forests of the Pacific coast. It is used for interior finish of houses and for furniture. It is close, firm, hard and strong, rich brown, with pale thick sap wood. From the leaves an aromatic oil is extracted, and a fatty acid from the fruit.
4. Genus SASSAFRAS, Nees.
Sassafras (Sassafras Sassafras, Karst.)—Tree, 3o to 5o feet high; rarely, in the South, loo feet high with trunk 6 to 7 feet in diameter; top, flat or round, loose, open, irregular. Roots fleshy, aromatic, deep, throwing up suckers. Bark spicy aro matic, thick, dark brown, reddish, scaly and broken by shallow fissures into broad flat ridges; twigs, smooth, striated, green, mucilaginous. Wood dull brownish yellow, soft, weak, coarse, brittle, durable in the soil. Buds ovate, acute, greenish, aromatic. Leaves alternate, petiolate, sometimes opposite, 4 to 6 inches long, dull yellow-green, pale beneath, with entire margin; autumn colour orange; shapes vary: (a) ovate, (b) mitten shape, with one side lobe only, (c) 3 lobed, with a thumb on each side—the three shapes all on the same tree. Flowers in May, dicecious, pale yellow, in corymbose racemes on separate trees; staminate, with 9 stamens mounted in 3 rows on the 6-lobed calyx, minute glands, orange coloured, at base of inner whorl of 3 stamens; pistillate, with 6 abortive stamens in one row about single erect pistil. Fruit soft, oblong, smooth, dark blue, on thickened scarlet calyx and pedicel. Preferred habitat, rich, sandy loam, borders of woodlands and peaty swamps. Distribution, southern Vermont west through Michigan and Iowa to Kansas. south to Florida and Texas. Uses: Wood makes posts and rails, boats and ox yokes. Bark of roots used as medicinal tea. Oil of bark used to flavour medicines. Valuable ornamental for its berries and brilliant autumn colouring. Attracts birds.
Who has not nibbled the dainty green buds of sassafras in winter, or dug at the roots for a bit of their aromatic bark? Or who has not searched among the leaves for "mittens"? Surely they are people whose youth was spent in regions that knew not this little tree of the fence corners and woodland borders. And they have missed something very much worth while out of their childhood.