Flora Medica

SASSAFRAS.573 Forests of Sumatra, where it is called " Kayo Gadis" orVirgin tree. Java.A lofty timber tree. Bark brown and rough. Leaves alternate,rather long-petioled, ovate, acute, often acuminate and varying inbreadth, about 3 inches long, entire, with somewhat revolute edges,smooth, glaucous beneath ; nerves lateral and irregularly alternate.Petioles round, 1 inch long. Peduncles from the young shoots at theextremity of the branches, axillary or lateral, terminated by a shortfew-flowered panicle, and generally longer than the young leaves fromwhose axils they spring. Bracts none. Perianth funnel-shaped,6-parted, yellowish. Jack. The fruit has a strong balsamic smelland yields an oil considered useful in rheumatic affections. An infusionof the root is drunk as Sassafras and with similar effects.(May thisnot be the " Oriental Sassafras wood " mentioned under the articleLaurus in Rees's Cyclopaedia ?\Jack.)BENZOIN.Flowers dioecious, involucrated. $ . Calyx 6-parted withequal permanent segments. Fertile stamens 9, in 3 rows.Anthers ovate, 2-celled, looking inwards. Glands 69 in 2 or 3rows, with a reniform compressed head, alternate either with thestamens of the second and third row, or with those of the firstand second row, added obliquely to the third row. ? flowerssmaller than the male with (12 ?) sterile stamens, among whichspathulate bodies are dispersed. Fruit succulent, seated on thepermanent 6-cleft calyx. Flowers before the leaves, in sessileumbels. Leaves membranous, deciduous.699. B. odoriferum Nees Laurin. 497. Laurus Benzoin Linn,sp. pi. 530. Barton mat. med. ii. t. 33. Laurus pseudo BenzoinMich.fl. bor. am. i. 243. Low moist places, damp shady woodsfrom Canada to Florida. (Spice wood, spice berry, Feverwood,) &c.A bush, 8-10 feet high. Leaves oblong or elliptical wedge-shaped,membranous, green on each side, slightly downy beneath. Flowersyellow, in little naked umbels on the naked branches. Fruit the sizeof an olive, bright red, in clusters. Bark highly aromatic, stimulant andtonic ; given in decoction or powder in intermittents. An infusion ofthe twigs a vermifuge. Oil of the berries, which are aromatic, a stimulant;these berries are said to have been used in the United Statesduring the American war as a substitute for allspice.TETRANTHERA.Flowers dioecious, some hermaphrodite, involucrated. Calyx6-parted segments ; nearly equal, deciduous or wanting, or only3, 4 or 5 and those small and petaloid.Fertile stamens in the6-cleft flowers 9 in 3 rows; in the petaloidor naked flower12-15-21 ;anthers ovate, 4-celled, all looking inwards. Sterilestamens 6, sessile or stalked, gland-like, attached in pairs to the339 z 2