SWEET GUM AND WITCH HAZEL 353 



by the millions of crinkly petals, last seasons woody capsules are 

 opened and loaded and ready to bombard the loiterer in the woods 

 with their doubled barrelled load of hard bony seeds. With the 

 contraction of the walls of the capsule in drying the seeds are 

 suddenly and forcibly expelled a distance of a score of feet or 

 more. 



There are three existing species of witch hazel and their dis- 

 tribution confirms the story learned from that of the sweet gum. 

 Our North American form ranges from the maritime provinces of 

 Canada westward up the St. Lawrence valley through southern 

 Ontario to Wisconsin and eastern Nebraska, and southward to 

 northern Florida and eastern Texas. It thus extends much 

 farther north than the sweet gum and unlike the latter it reaches 

 its largest size on the slopes of the higher Alleghanies in the Caro- 

 linas. The wood is too small to be of any particular use. The 

 witch hazel is, however, often cultivated as an ornamental plant 

 in our northern states and in northern and western Europe, be- 

 cause of its odd habit of blooming in the fall and winter, a habit 

 shared by the oriental species. The bark and leaves are slightly 

 astringent and although without any known essential properties 

 are largely used in homoepathic practice, and the extract made 

 by distilling the bark in dilute alcohol is extensively sold as a 

 toilet water. 



The two other existing species of witch hazel are Asiatic — one, 

 Hammelia japonica S. & Z. being found in the mountains of Japan 

 (Kiusiu and Nippon) and southern China (Kiangsi and Hupeh). 

 Thus all the witch hazels are essentially small mountain trees 

 or shrubs and not bottom dwellers like the sweet gum. 



While we are sure, from their present distribution, that the 

 witch hazels of today are the relics of an ancient line, we know 

 little of their geological history. In the mid-Cretaceous of North 

 America a number of leaves have been found which have been 

 described under the name of Hamamelites (Saporta). Some of 

 these are very like witch hazel leaves but whether they are verit- 

 able witch hazels or represent some other members of this family 

 it is impossible to determine conclusively. Other related forms 

 occur in the early Eocene of Belgium, France and Montana. A 



