=Fruit.=--Generally scanty, drupes, ovoid, deep blue, with club-shaped, bright red stalk. =Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; adapted to a great variety of soils, but prefers a stony, well-drained loam or gravel. Its irregular masses of foliage, which color so brilliantly in the fall, make it an extremely interesting tree in plantations, but it has always been rare in nurseries and difficult to transplant; suckers, however, can be moved readily. Propagated easily from seed. [Illustration: PLATE LIV.--Sassafras officinale.] 1. Winter buds. 2. Branch with sterile flowers. 3. Sterile flower. 4. Branch with fertile flowers. 5. Fertile flower. 6. Fruiting branch. HAMAMELIDACEAE. WITCH HAZEL FAMILY. =Liquidambar Styraciflua, L.= SWEET GUM. =Habitat and Range.=--Low, wet soil, swamps, moist woods. Connecticut,--restricted to the southwest corner of the state, not far from the seacoast; Darien to Five Mile river, probably the northeastern limit of its natural growth. South to Florida; west to Missouri and Texas. =Habit.=--Tree 40-60 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 10 inches to 2 feet, attaining a height of 150 feet and a diameter of 3-5 feet in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys; trunk tall and straight; branches rather small for the diameter and height of the tree, the lower mostly horizontal or declining; branchlets beset with numerous short, rather stout, curved twigs; head wide-spreading, ovoid or narrow-pyramidal, symmetrical; conspicuous in summer by its deep green, shining foliage, in autumn by the splendor of its coloring, and in winter by the long-stemmed, globular fruit, which does not fall till spring. =Bark.=--Trunk gray or grayish-brown, in old trees deeply furrowed and broken up into rather small, thickish, loose scales; branches brown-gray; branchlets with or without prominent corky ridges on the upper side; young twigs yellowish. =Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds ovate, reddish-brown, glossy, acute. Leaves simple, alternate, regular, 3-4 inches in diameter, dark green turning to reds, purples, and yellows in autumn, cut into the figure of a star by 5-7 equal, pointed lobes, glandular-serrate, smooth, shining on the upper surface, fragrant when bruised; base more or less heart-shaped; stalk slender. =Inflorescence.=--May. Developing from a bud of the season; sterile flowers in an erect or spreading, cylindrical catkin; calyx none; petals none, stamens many, intermixed with minute scales: fertile flowers numerous, gathered in a long peduncled head; calyx consisting of fine scales; corolla none; pistil with 2-celled ovary and 2 long styles. =Fruit.=--In spherical, woody heads, about 1 inch in diameter, suspended by a slender thread: a sort of aggregate fruit made up of the hardened, coherent ovaries, holding on till spring, each containing one or two perfect seeds.