Vermont Siikubs and Woody Vines 



91 



who is familiar with the witch-hazel plant, even in those sections 

 of Vermont where it is common. It is a tall bushy shrub of 

 five to fifteen feet or sometimes a small tree of twenty feet or 

 more, with long forking brown branches. The leaves are rather 

 large and of easily recognizable shape with wavy margin and 

 oblique base as shown in the figure. The flower and fruit both 

 have unusual and interesting characters. Witch-hazel is uni- 

 que among our shrubs in that it blossoms in very late autumn. 



Wliat is more cheering 

 after the early frosts 

 than to come upon 

 this shrub already leaf- 

 less but with branches 

 fringed with delicate 

 yellow blossoms pro- 

 phetic of the return of 

 spring? The flowers are 

 thus fertilized in the 

 autumn, but the fruit 

 does not enlarge until 

 the next season, when 

 the downy, nut-like, oval 

 capsules become about one-half inch or more long and in 

 the early autumn split elastically at the end in such a vay as to 

 shoot to some distance the rather large glossy-black seeds. On 

 a sunny autumn day these may be heard snapping like toy pis- 

 tols in the wayside thickets. A few branches with unopened 

 fruit placed in the school room will illustrate in a convincing 

 manner the effectiveness of nature's provision for seed dissemi- 

 nation. Witch-hazel has value as a shrub for ornamental 

 planting because of its compact habit, clean bright foliage an., 

 autumnal flowers. Witch-hazel extract is familiar as a niildl\- 

 soothing lotion. It is made by pounding or chopping the bark 

 of the young twigs and roots and extracting, either with water, 

 as the American Indians did, or with alcohol as prescribed by 



Witcii-Hazkl. 

 Flowering in autumn, 



X V2. 



