You may recognize the tree in midsummer by its long-tasselled, cream-white blossoms, which hang in profusion from the ends of the branches. The chestnut is the only forest-tree that blossoms at that time, so you cannot mistake it. Later you will know it by the prickly green burrs, which develop quickly. The tree is large and common to most States. The leaves are from six to eight inches long; they are coarsely toothed at the edges, sharply pointed at the end, and are prominently veined on the under side. They grow mostly in tufts drooping from a common centre.
Bark and Roots of Trees
Slippery-Elm
The inner bark and the root of the slippery-elm are not only pleasant to the taste but are said to be nutritious. They have a glutinous quality that gives the tree its name, and the flavor is nutty and substantial.
This variety of elm is common and is found from the Saint Lawrence River to Florida. It grows to a height of sixty or seventy feet, with spreading branches which flatten at the top. The outline of the tree is much like that of a champagne-glass, wide at the top and narrow at the stem. The slippery-elm resembles the white elm, but there are differences by which you can know it. If you stroke the leaf of a white elm you will find that it is rough one way but smooth the other; stroke the leaf of the slippery-elm, and it will be rough both ways. The buds of the white elm are smooth, those of the slippery-elm are hairy. Then you cannot mistake the inner bark of the slippery-elm, which is fragrant, thick, and gummy. The outer bark is dark brown, with shallow ridges and large, loose plates. The leaves are oblong, rounded at the base, and are coarsely toothed. They are prominently veined and are dark green, paler on the under side.
Sassafras
The sassafras grows wild from Massachusetts to Florida, and west through the Mississippi Valley. It is generally a small tree, from thirty to fifty feet high, and is often found growing in dense thickets in uncultivated fields. The edible bark is dark red-brown. It is thick but not hard and is deeply ridged and scaled. The cracked bark is one of the characteristics of the tree; it begins to split when the tree is about three years old. The strong aromatic flavor is held by the bark, the wood, the roots, the stems, and the leaves. I have never tasted the fruit, which is berry-like, dark blue, and glossy, and is held by a thick, scarlet calyx; but the birds are fond of it.
Sassafras tea was at one time considered the best of spring medicines for purifying the blood, and the bark was brought to market cut in short lengths and tied together in bunches.
The leaves are varied; on one twig there will sometimes be three differently shaped leaves. Some will be oval, some with three lobes, and some mitten-shaped; that is, an oval leaf with a side lobe like the thumb of a mitten.