hnut and chestnut.]

=Bark and Roots of Trees=

=Slippery-Elm=

The inner bark and the root of the _slippery-elm_ are not only pleasant
to the taste but are said to be nutritious. They have a glutinous
quality that gives the tree its name, and the flavor is nutty and
substantial.

This variety of elm is common and is found from the Saint Lawrence River
to Florida. It grows to a height of sixty or seventy feet, with
spreading branches which flatten at the top. The outline of the tree is
much like that of a champagne-glass, wide at the top and narrow at the
stem. The slippery-elm resembles the white elm, but there are
differences by which you can know it. If you stroke the leaf of a white
elm you will find that it is rough one way but smooth the other; stroke
the leaf of the slippery-elm, and it will be rough _both_ ways. The buds
of the white elm are smooth, those of the slippery-elm are _hairy_. Then
you cannot mistake the inner bark of the slippery-elm, which is
fragrant, thick, and gummy. The outer bark is dark brown, with shallow
ridges and large, loose plates. The leaves are oblong, rounded at the
base, and are coarsely toothed. They are prominently veined and are dark
green, paler on the under side.

=Sassafras=

The _sassafras_ grows wild from Massachusetts to Florida, and west
through the Mississippi Valley. It is generally a small tree, from
thirty to fifty feet high, and is often found growing in dense thickets
in uncultivated fields. The edible bark is dark red-brown. It is thick
but not hard and is deeply ridged and scaled. The cracked bark is one
of the characteristics of the tree; it begins to split when the tree is
about three years old. The strong aromatic flavor is held by the bark,
the wood, the roots, the stems, and the leaves. I have never tasted the
fruit, which is berry-like, dark blue, and glossy, and is held by a
thick, scarlet calyx; but the birds are fond of it.

Sassafras tea was at one time considered the best of spring medicines
for purifying the blood, and the bark was brought to market cut in short
lengths and tied together in bunches.

The leaves are varied; on one twig there will sometimes be three
differently shaped leaves. Some will be oval, some with three lobes, and
some mitten-shaped; that is, an oval leaf with a side lobe like the
thumb of a mitten.

=Salads. Watercress=

There is no more refreshing salad than the _watercress_ gathered fresh
from a cool, runnin