48 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



amid a wilderness of weeds, one of our party discovered a 

 two and a half foot high fringed gentian plant with two 

 beautifully developed flowers three inches long. This 

 seems a very early date for our latest flower. 



The deep red of the sumachs added its quota to the 

 color note of early autumn. Many of the plants had entire 

 leaves of various shapes instead of the usual compound 

 ones. A further inconsistency was the replacing of the 

 pyramid of fruit by that ol small deep red leaves, so curled 

 and crumpled as to resemble berries except upon close in- 

 spection. Many of these plants bore no fruit, \vhile others 

 had branches of fruit below the th^^rse of leaves, and on 

 all of the berries was the salty exudation found on the 

 sumachs in Connecticut two years ago from \vhich we 

 made Suraachade. I tried this again though the small 

 quantity of berries brought home hardly warranted it. 

 The berries were steeped in cold water, allowed to remain 

 over night. Then the water was strained off and slightly 

 sweetened. The acid taste is characteristic and found 

 favor. 



New York City, N. Y. 



WITCH HAZEL 



BY DR. WILLIAM WHITAIAN BAILEY. 

 SJS the last flower in the year, the witch hazel has a 

 ^ -L peculiar interest. While it is true that a number of 

 plants, mainly weeds of foreign origin, are found blooming 

 as late, these are survivals of other seasons. Such, to 

 mention only a few, are the butter-and-eggs, the soap- 

 wort and some species of violets. The autumnal dande- 

 lion, too, still lingers ; but such plants are really not of 

 the time. 



The witch hazel is found growing beside our running 

 brooks, or on the banks of ponds. It is a shrub from ten 

 to twenty feet in height, with a peculiar, rather oblong, 

 wavy-margined leaf. Once known it is easily remembered. 



The flowers are singular and interesting rather than 

 beautiful, though in a mass they are effective. They are 



