416 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



FAMILY XXIII. THE WITCH HAZEL FAMILY. HAMA- 



MELA S CEJE. Lindley. 



A family embracing shrubs of Madagascar, Japan, the Cape 

 of Good Hope, China, and North America ; an iron- wooded 

 tree of Persia and the Caucasus ; a poplar-like tree of India, and 

 a tree with the aspect of a cherry-tree, of Assam. Alternate, 

 deciduous feather- veined leaves; a bark often sprinkled with 

 stellate pubescence; deciduous stipules; small axillary, or ter- 

 minal white or pale yellow flowers ; a calyx four- or five-cleft ; 

 petals sometimes wanting, sometimes four or five, spirally con- 

 volute in the bud, alternate with the calyx-segments, linear, 

 deciduous ; eight or ten stamens, four or five fertile, alternate 

 with the petals, with anthers opening with a valve sometimes 

 deciduous, four or five scale-like and sterile, (perhaps petals) ; 

 ovary, adhering to the calyx, two-celled, with usually solitary 

 seeds, and two styles; a leathery or woody, two-beaked, two- 

 celled capsule, are its characteristics. A single American genus, 

 Folhergilla, wanting petals, has fragrant flowers, with numer- 

 ous fertile stamens. Properties unknown. There is a single 

 genus in Massachusetts. 



THE WITCH-HAZEL. HAMAME^LIS. L. 



Involucre three-leaved, three-flowered. Calyx deeply four- 

 parted, invested with two to four roundish scales. Petals four, 

 linear ; stamens four, alternate with the petals ; anthers open- 

 ing with a lid ; scales four, opposite the stamens ; capsule 

 woody, two-horned, with one black, shining seed in each of 

 the two cells, opening at top by two elastic valves. Flowers 

 sterile or fertile on one or different plants. 



The Common Witch-Hazel. H. Virginiana. L. 



Figured in Barton's Flora, III, Plate 78. Catesby's Birds, Plate 102. 



" The variegated appearance of the American forests during 

 the months of autumn," says Dr. Bigelow. Fl. 61, " has been 

 repeatedly noticed by travellers. Among the crimson and yel- 



