SASSAFRÀS.
The tree sassafràs, which is very common throughout the whole of America, may be commended for its beauty, as well as its salubrity. The trunk is perfectly straight and plain, to the length of about thirty feet, when the top unfolds into branches, and leaves. Not only the wood of this tree, but also the bark and root smell very strong of fennel, which keeps off decay and rottenness. Like santalum it is of a dusky yellow colour, and has a sharp aromatic taste, and a pleasant smell. Druggists should examine carefully that the wood of the red fir, boiled in fennel, may not be palmed upon them by foreign traders for the real wood. There is also another kind of sassafràs, which has leaves like those of a laurel, and bears an odoriferous and blackish fruit. The bark is of a darkish red colour. This other species is said to possess the same virtue as the former, in provoking perspiration, and urine, in healing maladies arising from cold, syphilis, obstructions in the bowels, disorders in the womb, &c. The apeterebî, a tree common in the North of Paraguay, is also thought by some to be a species of sassafràs.