WITCH-HAZEL FAMILY HAMAMELIDACEAE 
WITCH-HAZEL 
Hamamelis virginiana L. 
The Witch-hazel family is relatively small and made up 
entirely of trees and shrubs. An extract distilled from the 
branches of this species is marketed as aremedy for sprains, 
bruises and the like, 
or as an astringent. 
The Witch-hazel is a 
shrub with a maximum 
height of 25 feet, and is 
usually much smaller. 
It likes damp woods, in 
which it may be found 
» from Nova Scotia to 
Florida and from Minne- 
sota to Texas. 
This plant is unique 
among shrubs because it 
blooms in late autumn 
and the fruits mature a 
year later. The persis- 
tent calyx is 4-parted 
and grown fast to the 
lower part of the ovary. 
The 4 yellow, long and 
narrow petals also per- 
sist a long time. There are 8 stamens, 4 perfect alternating 
with the petals and 4 imperfect and scalelike. The pistil con- 
sists of a 2-celled ovary and 2 short styles. The fruit is a woody 
capsule containing 2 seeds. 
The capsules are ripe about the time the next crop of flowers 
appears. If they are collected in September or October and kept 
indoors they dry out and at length burst with a snap, discharg- 
ing the seeds often more than 20 feet. 
The Sweet Gum or Bilsted, Liguidambar Styraciflua L., is the 
other of the two members of the family found in Illinois. This 
is a large and beautiful tree in the swampy woods of the south, 
known for its star-pointed, 5-7-lobed leaves and fragrant sap. It 
is found only in swampy woods along the Atlantic coast and the 
Gulf, up the Mississippi basin to Illinois and Missouri. 
144 
