The sassafras is not important as a forest tree, yet I do not know
another to whom so many kinds of people, of all ages, go, asking for
favours this tree alone can give. Even in regions where the tree does not
grow, its name is well known. Sassafras tea has a world-wide reputation
as a cure for “spring fever,” otherwise known as “that tired feeling.”
Drug store windows are piled high in spring with bits of the corky bark
of the sassafras roots, and the buds in winter taste of the same aromatic
oil, whose flavour rises from a steaming pot of sassafras tea. Many a
bad-tasting medicine is made more palatable by a drop or two of oil of
sassafras.
The leaves and twigs of young sassafras trees are used in the South to
flavour and thicken gumbo soups. The wood of sassafras is light and
tough. The long limbs are cut and stripped by country boys going fishing,
who know what trees yield the best fishing rods. Sassafras posts last a
long while, for the wood does not rot in contact with soil, or soaked
with water. It makes good boats and barrels for this same reason.
Children know the sassafras tree. In winter they nibble the dainty green
buds, or dig away the snow at the roots to get a morsel of the aromatic
bark. In summer it is the leaves that are the chief charm of the tree. It
is a fascinating game to look for the “mittens and double mittens,” which
seem to be more numerous than the plain oval leaves on this tree. There
is no other tree that has three distinct leaf shapes. The mitten form has
its thumb just right, on one side. It might be used for a mitten pattern.
There are lefts and rights, and mittens of all sizes. The doll-sized ones
are the youngest, and they grow near the tips of the twigs. The double
mittens have a thumb on each side, and the simple oval shape—the hand
part with no thumb at all—is usually harder to find than either of the
others.
When looking for these strange leaf shapes, there is always a chance of
coming upon a strange inhabitant of the sassafras tree. A great green
caterpillar is lying at ease upon a hammock of silk, which he has spun
for himself. There he lies, and gazes at the startled person who
discovers him. Are those really eyes, or only black spots? They probably
scare away birds which are looking for worms. The effect of the two “eye
spots” is almost as surprising as if two rolling eyeballs glared at the
intruder, and threatened violence if he came near.
Carry home this fearsome green mummy on the leaf; put him in a cage made
of wire screen, and watch him. He needs no food, for he is asleep. When
he awakes his mummy case will split open, and out of it will emerge a
wonderful butterfly, with banded wings of black and yellow velvet, and
long, tapering points trailing behind, which gives him his name—the
swallow-tailed butterfly. He has a flexible tongue, an inch or more in
length, coiled like a watch spring. With it he will probe the tubes of
flowers, and find the nectar at the base of each. He is hungry now, so
let him go. Turn him loose in a bed of flowers, and you may see just how
he feeds.
When the mother butterfly laid its tiny green egg on the face of an open
leaf of the sassafras, the tree was probably in blossom. In June,
delicate, starry, greenish-yellow flowers come out in clusters on the
ends of twigs. The butterfly finds nectar in these fragrant and dainty
blossoms. In the autumn birds come and feast upon the blue berries which
look very handsome on their red stems. Indeed, it is quite usual for the
trees to be stripped while the berries are still green, so hungry are the
birds that stop to feed on their long journey to the South.
In the autumn the sassafras trees change colour from the brilliant green
of summer. All colours of the sunset, purple, red, and golden, blend in
these shining tree tops. A clump of sassafras and sweet gum trees, with
here and there a tupelo and a dogwood, a scarlet oak and a hard maple,
make a picture never to be forgotten. If the roadside trees were on fire,
they would not show any more vivid colouring. It is their glorious
good-bye to the year, before they all let their leaves fall and enter
into the sleep of winter.