=Sassafras= is a genus containing but two known species, one in North America and the other in China. The SASSAFRAS or AGUE TREE, is eighty to ninety feet high, is found from Canada to Florida, west to Kansas and Texas. Oil of sassafras, used for flavoring confectionery, is distilled from the roots, and the bark is frequently employed as a household medicine and beverage.
=Sequoia=, a genus of trees named after a remarkable Cherokee Indian (otherwise George Guess), who gave his tribe a written alphabet of eighty-six characters, and died in New Mexico in 1845. There are only two living species, both natives of Western North America, the Big or Mammoth Tree and the California Redwood. The Big Tree is a native of the Sierra Nevada, and reaches over one thousand years of age, four hundred and fifty feet in height, and one hundred and twelve feet in circumference. The Redwood has a wider range in latitude as a wild tree, and reaches three hundred feet in height. It has a shaggy, reddish bark and very dark foliage. Its wood is of good texture, but monotonous in grain. It is used in cabinet work and interiors.
=Spruce= (_Picea_), a genus of about eighteen species, native of the Northern Hemisphere. The WHITE SPRUCE is a slender tree fifty to one hundred and fifty feet high, found from New York to British Columbia, north to Newfoundland, Hudson Bay and Alaska. The wood is light and soft and is largely used for construction and for paper pulp. The BLACK SPRUCE is twenty to thirty and very rarely one hundred feet high; grows from Newfoundland and Hudson Bay and Alberta south to North Carolina, Michigan and Minnesota. It is largely used for wood pulp and paper. The RED SPRUCE, seventy to eighty feet high, grows from Nova Scotia to Virginia, and is largely manufactured into lumber. The TIDELAND or SITKA SPRUCE is a large tree usually one hundred feet, sometimes two hundred feet high, occurring abundantly from northern California to Alaska. Its valuable timber is used for all kinds of building purposes. The NORWAY SPRUCE is largely planted in the Eastern States as an ornamental tree.
=Sycamore.= Only certain trees of the genus _Ficus_, mostly natives of Asia and Africa, are properly called sycamores. The EGYPTIAN SYCAMORE, supposed to be the sycamore of the Bible, is a large spreading tree often planted for shade in Egypt and western Asia. In northern Europe this name is also given to the species of maple, and in the United States to the AMERICAN PLANE TREE. See PLANE TREE.