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.