N. ORD.—HAMAMELACE£®. 5S 
Tribe.—HAMAMELEA. 
GENUS.—HAMAMELI S,* LINN. 
SEX. SYST.—TETRANDRIA DIGYNIA, 
HAMAMELIS. 
WITCH HAZEL, 
SYN.—HAMAMELIS VIRGINICA, LINN., HAMAMELIS MACROPHYLLA, 
PURSH, HAMAMELIS DIOICA, WALT., HAMAMELIS CORYLIFOLIA, 
MG@NCH. 
COM. NAMES.—WITCH HAZEL, SNAPPING-HAZELNUT, WATER-SEEKER, 
WINTER-BLOOM, SPOTTED ALDER. . 
A TINCTURE OF THE FRESH TWIGS AND BARK OF HAMAMELIS VIRGINICA, LINN. 
Description.—This strange shrub, whose flowers do not open until its leaves 
fall, grows to a height of from 5 to 15 feet. The stem is usually single, some- 
times as large as 4 inches in diameter at the base. Bark smooth, brown. 
Branches numerous, long, flexuous and forking. Leaves 3 to 5 inches long, cor- 
date-ovate or oval, with sinuate edges and straight veins, downy stellate-pubescent 
when young, but becoming smooth with age. edzol/es about one-half an inch long. 
Involucre 3-leaved, scale-like, pubescent, on a short peduncle. lowers many, 
axillary, several in a cluster or head. Ca/yx persistent, of 4 broadly-ovate, hairy, 
‘recurved divisions, with 2 or 3 little bracts at the base. Corolla of 4 long, strap- 
shaped, yellow petals, which soon wither and curl. S¢amens 8, four are fertile, 
four sterile: sterile stamens scale-like, truncate, opposite the petals; fertile 
stamens shorter, curving inward toward the pistil; //aments short; anther adnate, 
introrse, 2-celled, the cells rather widely separated, opening laterally by uplifted 
valves. ellen, grains ellipsoid, with 3 evenly separated deep sulci. Ovaries 2, 
united below, Siy/es 2, short. Capsule roundish ovoid, hard and leathery, the 
lower half with the persistent calyx and bracts, the upper smooth, Dehiscence 
loculicidal from the apex, during which the exocarp cleaves from the endocarp, 
which contains the seeds, and soon bursts, disclosing 2 cells, black and shining 
within, each with a single seed. Vué/ets stony, oblong, narrow, deep glossy black, 
except the dull white tip. Embryo \ong, straight. Albumen little or none. 
History and Habitat.—This plant, about which was formerly draped, by 
those versed in the occult arts, a veil of deep mystery, and whose forked branches 
were used as a divining-rod while searching for water and ores, grows profusely 
in the damp woods of Canada and the United States, flowering in October and 
ripening its fruit in the following summer. 
* haa, like to, pM, an apple tree. Some plants bear a slight resemblance to small wild apple trees. 
