The _flowers_ are clustered, greenish, yellow, and open with the first unfolding of the leaves. The staminate and pistillate flowers are usually on different trees. The _fruit_ is an oblong, dark blue or black, lustrous berry, containing one seed and surrounded at the base by what appears to be a small orange-red or scarlet cup at the end of a scarlet stalk. The _wood_ is light, soft, weak, brittle, and durable in the soil; the heartwood is dull orange-brown. It is used for posts, rails, boat building, cooperage and for ox-yokes. The bark of the roots yields the very aromatic oil of sassafras much used for flavoring candies and various commercial products. The sassafras deserves more consideration than it has received as a shade and ornamental tree. The autumnal coloring of its foliage is scarcely surpassed by any tree, and it is very free from insect pests. +SWEET GUM+ _Liquidambar styraciflua_ L. THE sweet or red gum is a very common tree on low lands in southern Illinois, but it is seldom found north of Jackson County in the west or north of Richland in the east. It is usually abundant in old fields or in cut-over woods. The _bark_ is a light gray, roughened by corky scales, later becoming deeply furrowed. After the second year the twigs often develop 2 to 4 corky projections of the bark, which give them a winged appearance. [Illustration: SWEET GUM Leaf, one-third natural size. Twig, two-thirds natural size.] The simple, alternate star-shaped _leaf_, with its 5 to 7 points or lobes, is 5 to 7 inches across and very aromatic. In the fall its coloring is brilliant, ranging from pale yellow through orange and red to a deep bronze. The _flowers_ are of two kinds on the same tree, unfolding with the leaves. The _fruit_ at first glance reminds one of the balls of the sycamore, but on closer inspection proves to be a head. It measures an inch or more in diameter and is made up of many capsules with projecting spines. It frequently hangs on the tree by its long swinging stem late into the winter. The _wood_ is heavy, moderately hard, close-grained, and not durable on exposure. The reddish-brown heartwood, which suggests the name, red gum, is not present to any appreciable extent in logs under 16 inches in diameter. In the South, the wood is extensively used for flooring, interior finish, paper pulp and veneers for baskets of all kinds. Veneers of the heartwood are largely used in furniture, sometimes as imitation mahogany or Circassian walnut. This tree should be more widely planted for ornamental use. +SYCAMORE+ _Platanus occidentalis_ L.