Addisonia 43 



(Plate 142) 



HAMAMELIS VIRGINIANA 

 Witch-hazel 



Native of eastern North America 

 Family Hamamewdaceak Witch-hazeIv Family 



Hamamelis virginiana L. Sp. PI. 124. 1753. 



A large shrub, commonly under fifteen feet high, or more rarely a 

 small tree up to thirty feet tall. The stems are usually ascending, 

 forming a plant of rather open habit. The slender twigs are at 

 first covered with brown hairs, but later become quite glabrous. 

 The hairy winter-buds are light brown, slightly curved, and sharp- 

 pointed. The leaves are alternate and have stalks usually less 

 than a half inch long. The blades are dark green above and glab- 

 rous, the veins on the lower surface pubescent; they are ovate to 

 almost orbicular, acute or sometimes rounded at the apex, and the 

 base inequilateral, with one side rounded or somewhat cordate, the 

 other wedge-shaped, the margin, except at the base, being bluntly 

 and coarsely toothed; they are from two and a half to six inches 

 long. The flowers are in clusters of three in the axils of the leaves 

 on short peduncles, appearing during or after the fall of the leaves. 

 The calyx is four-parted, the lobes reflexed; the four petals are 

 bright yellow, strap-shaped, crisped, a half inch to an inch long; 

 there are four short fertile stamens which are opposite to the calyx- 

 lobes and alternate with an equal number of rudimentary stamens; 

 the ovary is two-celled and has a short style. The ovoid hairy 

 fruit is thick and woody, commonly a little over a half inch long, 

 and is two-beaked; it splits open at the top, the seeds being ejected 

 with considerable force. The smooth seeds are nearly black, 

 shining, and are about a third of an inch long. 



The great charm of this plant is in its flowers, which appear as the 

 fall is waning and winter is near. Usually as the leaves begin to 

 fall the bright yellow flowers arrive, making it a most attractive 

 member among our fall-flowering shrubs, which are all too few. 

 As defoliation advances the flowers are more evident, the shrub 

 thus becoming a more and more conspicuous object in our late 

 autumn landscape. The specimen from which the illustration was 

 prepared has been in the fruticetum collection of the New York 

 Botanical Garden since 1895. 



