86 HAMAMELIDACEAE. 
PARROTIA. 
(Family Hamamelidaceae). 
Small tree, with the bark flak- 
ing as in Platanus: deciduous. 
Twigs rounded, somewhat zig-zag, 
from somewhat dingy stellate-to- 
mentose becoming glabrate: pith 
rather small, 3-sided, continuous, 
greenish. Buds moderate, soli- 
tary, stalked, oblique, ovoid-ob- 
long, with 2 scales, the end-bud 
somewhat larger. lLeaf-scars al- 
ternate, 2-ranked, half-round or 
triangular, slightly raised, small: 
bundle-traces 3, sometimes com- 
pound: stipule-scars very unequal. 
Parrotia persica is markedly 
different from other trees re- 
ferred to the Hamamelidaceae in 
its conspicuously exfoliating bark 
and nearly black buds. Its winter- 
characters are pictured by Schnei- 
der, f. 96. 
Parrotia agrees with Hamamelis and differs from Fother- 
gilla in bearing its fruits in compact short clusters. It is 
rather tenderer than either of the others but is entirely hardy 
farther north than Washington. 
An interesting characteristic of the family is that when 
the woody capsules dehisce the pressure of their walls upon 
the smooth seeds forces these out much as a melon-seed may 
be snapped from between finger and thumb. 
Twigs brown: buds blackish-puberulent. (1). P. persica. 
Twigs olive: buds dingy puberulent. P. Jacquemontiana. 
The winter-characters of Disanthus cercidifolia, of the 
Hamamelidaceae, are pictured by Shirasawa, 254, pl. 6. 
