The trees reported by Loudon to be growing in his time at Syon and at Croome cannot now be found.
Medicinal properties
An interesting article on this tree by Prof. Sargent, with a figure of the trunk of an old one on Long Island showing the peculiar bark, is given in Garden and Forest, vii. 215; and from this I take the following :—
The Sassafras is one of the most interesting trees of eastern North America. The last survivor of a race which at an earlier period of the earth’s history was common to the two hemispheres, it is the only tree in a large family which has been able to maintain itself in a region of severe winter cold. Towards the middle of the sixteenth century the French in Florida heard from the Indians wonderful accounts of the curative properties of a tree which they called Pavame, and which for no obvious reasons the Europeans called Sassafras. The tree and its virtues were first described by the Spanish physician, Nicholas Monardes, in his Natural History of the New World, published in Seville in 15609.
The reputation of the roots and wood as a sovereign cure for most human maladies soon spread through Europe, and extraordinary efforts were made to procure them. To collect Sassafras was one of the objects of the English expedition which landed in Massachusetts in 1602, and eight years later Sassafras is mentioned among the articles to be sent home, in the instructions of the English Government to the officers of the young colony in Virginia.
For nearly two centuries the reputation of Sassafras was maintained, and many medical treatises have extolled its virtues, though now it is generally recognised as simply a mild aromatic stimulant. Recently the thick pith of the young branches has been found to yield a mucilage useful to oculists, as it can be combined with alcohol and subacetate of lead without causing their precipitation. The oil of Sassafras, obtained from the wood and roots by distillation, is used to perfume soap and other articles ; and perhaps after all the most useful product of the Sassafras tree is the yellow powder prepared from the leaves by the Choctaw Indians of Louisiana, used to give peculiar flavour and consistency to "Gumbo filé,” one of the best products of the Creole kitchen.
Timber
The wood has little or no economic value and is unknown in Europe. Michaux says that it was never seen in the lumber yard, and was only occasionally used for joists, rafters, and bedsteads; and that it is not attacked by beetles on account of the odour, which it preserves as long as it is kept dry. Ashe says it is light, soft, weak, brittle, and coarse-grained, very durable in contact with the soil, and apt to crack in drying. But the unusual orange-brown colour of the heartwood seems to me to give it a value for ornamental carpentry, if it can be procured of sufficient size. (H.J.E.)
