Useful Knowledge: Volume 2. Vegetables / Or, a familiar account of the various productions of nature

by William Bingley

132. SASSAFRAS is the wood of a North American tree of the bay tribe (Lauras sassafras), and is imported into Europe in long straight pieces, which are of light and porous texture, and covered with a rough fungous bark.

This tree is sometimes twenty or thirty feet high. The branches are crooked, and the leaves various, both in form and size, some of them being oval and entire, and others having two or three lobes. They are pale green, and downy beneath. The flowers, which are of a dingy yellow colour, appear in pendant spikes.

This wood has a fragrant smell, and an aromatic and somewhat acrid, though sweetish taste, that are also observable in the bark, the smaller twigs, and the roots, all of which are imported into this country as well as the wood. Infusions and decoctions of sassafras are frequently taken as a medicine for improving the tone of the stomach and bowels, in persons whose humours are in a vitiated state. Soon after its introduction into Europe, in the year 1560, this medicine was in such high repute as to be sold, on the Continent, at the rate of fifty livres per pound; and its virtues were extolled in numerous publications that were written on the subject. It is, however, now considered of little importance; and sassafras is seldom employed but in conjunction with other medicines, which, in their nature, are more powerful. Infusions of sassafras are sold in the streets of London, under the name of saloop.

We are informed that, in many parts of America, where the sassafras trees not only grow in great numbers in the woods, but are planted along the fences of enclosures, it is not unusual to make bed-posts of the wood, for the purpose of expelling bugs. Its powerful scent drives away these disagreeable insects; and some persons put chips of sassafras into their wardrobes and chests, to prevent the attack of moths. This wood serves for the posts of enclosures, to which, by its lasting nature in the ground, it is peculiarly adapted.

The bark of the sassafras tree is used by the American women for dyeing worsted, which it does of a permanent and beautiful orange colour.

133. The CASHEW NUT is a small kidney-formed nut, which grows at the extremity of a somewhat pear-shaped Indian fruit.

The tree which produces it (Anacardium occidentale, Fig. 42) somewhat resembles a walnut tree in shape, as well as in the smell of its leaves, which are leathery, somewhat oval and shining. The flowers are red, and sweet-scented.

The size of this fruit is nearly that of a large pear, and the colour of its pulp is sometimes yellow and sometimes red. The singularity of its form, with a nut or stone at the extremity, instead of the centre, generally excites the surprise of persons when they first see it. In a ripe state the fruit is sometimes roasted, cut in slices, and used as an agreeable acid in punch. Its juice, when fermented, is made into wine; and, on distillation, yields a spirit which some persons prefer even to rum.

The nuts are each enclosed in two shells, connected together by a cellular substance, which contains a thick, inflammable, and very caustic oil. The kernels of these nuts have a peculiarly sweet and pleasant flavour, and are eaten either raw or roasted, and sometimes even pickled. It is said that the negroes of Brazil, who eat of these nuts as part of their sustenance, find them peculiarly wholesome, and that they are relieved, by the use of them, from various disorders of the stomach. They are also used in medicine, as almonds; and, when ground with the chocolate nut, they greatly improve its flavour. Cashew nuts may be kept, without any great alteration of their quality, for many years. If the shells be broken, and the nuts be laid for a little while on the fire, they open of themselves; and the kernels being taken out, the thin brown skin which covers them must be removed previously to their being eaten. It is necessary to be cautious, respecting the oil, that it do not come in contact with the mouth or lips; as, in such case, it would inflame and excoriate them.

The oil of the cashew nut is sometimes applied, by the inhabitants of the West Indies (though much caution is requisite in the use of it) as a means of corroding cancerous ulcers, corns, and ring-worms; and some of the West Indian ladies, when they imagine themselves too much tanned by the scorching rays of the sun, cut off the outer shell of the nut, and rub the oil upon their faces as a cosmetic. The immediate consequences of this extraordinary operation are swelling and blackness of the parts; and, in five or six days, the whole skin peels off, leaving the face so sore and tender, that it is impossible for the person using it to appear abroad in less than a fortnight; by which time the new skin is sufficiently hardened, and is as fair as that of a newly-born infant. There are, however, few British females who would consent to be thus flayed alive for the sake of rendering themselves fair. This oil tinges linen a permanent rusty iron colour.