4 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. HAMAMELIDES. 
the petioles and stipules, are coated with stellate ferrugineous pubescence; at maturity they are 
membranaceous, dull dark green on the upper surface, which is glabrous or pilose with occasional minute 
white hairs, and pubescent or puberulous especially along the midribs and principal veins on the lower 
surface, which is lighter colored and more lustrous than the upper. The stipules are lanceolate, acute, 
coriaceous, and from one third to half an inch long. In the autumn, before falling, the leaves turn 
a delicate yellow color. The clusters of flower-buds appear in August on short recurved peduncles 
developed from the axils of leaves of the year, and are covered, like the acute bracts and bractlets, 
with dark ferrugineous pubescence. The flowers open from the middle of September to the middle of 
November in different parts of the country; the calyx is at this season coated on the outer surface 
with thick pale pubescence, and is orange-brown on the inner surface, the rounded lobes being ciliate 
on the margins. The petals are bright yellow,’ and half an inch to two thirds of an inch long, and, 
like the stamens, fall as soon as the ovules have been fertilized. During the winter the calyx-lobes 
surround and protect the pubescent ovary, which does not begin to enlarge until the following spring. 
The fruit ripens in the autumn, usually two from each flower-cluster, and discharges its seeds when the 
flowers of the season are expanding; it is half an inch long, pubescent, dull orange-brown, and is 
surrounded for half its length by the large persistent calyx bearing at its base the blackened remnants 
of the floral bracts. 
Hamamelis Virginiana is distributed from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the valley of the 
St. Lawrence River to southern Ontario,” Wisconsin, and eastern Nebraska,’ and southward to northern 
Florida and eastern Texas. The Witch Hazel is one of the most common shrubs in the territory it 
inhabits, and is usually found on the borders of the forest in low rich soil or on the rocky banks of 
streams ; it probably becomes a tree only on the slopes of the high Alleghany Mountains in North and 
South Carolina and Tennessee. 
The wood of Hamamelis Virginiana is heavy, hard, and very close-grained, and contains 
numerous thin obscure medullary rays ; it is light brown tinged with red, the thick sapwood, composed 
of from thirty to forty layers of annual growth, being nearly white. 
lutely dry wood is 0.6856, a cubic foot weighing 42.72 pounds. 
The bark and leaves of Hamamelis Virginiana are slightly astringent, and although not known 
to possess essential properties * are largely used by herbalists in the form of fluid extracts and decoc- 
The specific gravity of the abso- 
tions, and in homeopathic practice.® 
The appearance of the flowers of the Witch Hazel late in the autumn as the fruit ripens and after 
the leaves have changed color gives it peculiar interest, and should secure for it a place in the 
shrubbery, where formerly it was more often seen than it is at present.’ 
Hamamelis Virginiana appears to have been first noticed by John Banister,’ an English mission- 
ary in Virginia; and the earliest printed notice of it is found in the Almagestum Botanicum of 
1 Mr. Edward L. Rand has found in Malden, Massachusetts, a 
single plant on which the petals are all light red. 
2 Provancher, Flore Canadienne, i. 255.— Brunet, Cat. Vég. Lig. 
Can. 29. — Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. i. 166. 
of disease have excited an unusual interest in Hamamelis, in which, 
however, chemists fail to distinguish any active medicinal prop- 
erties. (See Rafinesque, Med. Fl. i. 227, f. 45.— Endlicher, En- 
chirid. Bot. 401. — Griffith, Med. Bot. 350, f. 165. — James Foun- 
3 Bessey, Bull. Exper. Stat. Nebraska, iv. art. iv. 16. 
4 Gray, Am. Jour. Sci. ser. 2, xxiv. 438. 
5 The bark of Hamamelis first attracted attention as a remedy 
on account of its reputed use by the North American Indians in 
the treatment of external inflammations. It has been recommended 
by several practitioners for the treatment of hemorrhage of the 
lungs and stomach, and for external applications. By distilling 
the bark in dilute alcohol “ Pond’s Extract” is made. 
larity of this medicine and the widespread belief in its value for 
The popu- 
external applications and for the treatment of nearly every form 
tain, N. Y. Jour. Med. x. 208.— Trans. Am. Med. Assoc. i. 349. — 
Nat. Dispens. ed. 2, 704.—Baillon, Traité Bot. Méd. 768, £. 2398- 
2400. — Johnson, Man. Med. Bot. N. Am. 145, f. 127. — Parke, 
Davis & Co., Organ. Mat. Med. ed. 2, 197.— U.S. Dispens. ed. 16, 
757.) 
* Millspaugh, Am. Med. Plants in Homeopathic Remedies, i. 58, 
t. 58. 
7 Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 1007, £. 756, 757. 
8 See i. 6. 
