WITCH-HAZEL. 133 



recognized it as a new species of tlie genus 

 Wolffia, and named it from the country 

 in which he found it, Wolffia Brasiliensis. 

 The plant has since been found on our own 

 ponds. It is the flat-topped species pictured 

 in Fig. 91. The genus Wolffia does honor 

 to John F. Wolff, a German, who wrote in 

 1801 upon the leranas. 



If we were to attempt to find the aver- 

 age in size of flowering plants between the 

 two extremes, — the pigmy Wolffia and the 

 giant eucalyptus of Australia or the redwood 

 of California, — we should be obliged to se- 

 lect a plant about twenty inches high, — say 

 a geranium of the window-garden. 



Witch-Hazel. 

 The common witch-hazel, the tenacious 

 bush which so often brings trouble into 

 newly-cleared pastures, is one of the most 

 unique and interesting of all the shrubs of 

 the American forest. It possesses the strange 

 habit of counterfeiting spring by putting 

 forth its flowers with the falling of the 

 leaves. The narrow band-like petals imitate 

 the prevailing 3"ellow colors of the autumn. 

 The flowers are conspicuous and pretty, still 

 they are commonly overlooked. One does 



