HA3IA.MELACE.-n. (VlTCIT-nAZEL FAMILY). 147 



May-July. — A tall shrub, with long and recurved branches: often cultivated. 

 P. coroxarius, L., the common Mock Orange or Syringa of the gardens, 

 has cream-colored, odorous flowers in full clusters: the crushed leaves have 

 the odor and taste of cucumbers. 



Order 51. HA3IA3IELACE/E. (Witch-Hazel Family.) 



Shrubs or Iras, with alternate simple leaves and deciduous stipules ; flow- 1 1 

 in heads or spikes, often polygamous or monoecious; the calyx cohering with 

 the base of the ovary; which consists of 2 pistils united below, and forms a 

 2-beaked 2-celled woody pod opening at die summit, with a single bony seed 

 in each cell, or several, only one or two of them ripening. — Petals inserted 

 on the calyx, narrow, valvate or involute in the bud, or often none at all. 



Stamens twice as many as the petals, and hall' of them sterile and changed 

 into scales, or numerous Seeds anatropoua. Embryo large and straight, 

 in sparing albumen: cotyledons broad and flat — We have a single repre- 

 sentative of the 3 tribes, two of them apetalous. 



SynoriM*. 



Tkibe I. HAMAMELE.E. Mowers with a manifest calyx and corolla, and a single 

 ovule suspended from the summit of each cell. 



1 HAMAMKI,i.s. Petal* 4, strap-shaped. Stamens and scales each 4, short. 



Tribe II. FOTHEKGII<[.E.E. Flowers with a manifest calyx and no corolla. Fruit 

 and seed as in Tribe I. 



2. FOTlIKKdlLLA. Stamens about 24, Ion;; : filaments thickened upwards. Flowers spiked. 



Tribe III. BALSAHIIFIjUjE. Flowers naked, with barely rudiments of a calyx, and 

 no corolla, crowded in catkrn-likc heads Ovules several or many in each cell. 



3. JjIQUIDAMIi.il!. Monoecious or polygamous. Stamens very numerous. Pods consoli 



dated by their bases in a dense head. 



1. II A ill A ME LIS, L. Witc.i-IIazel. 



Flowers in little axillary clusters or heads, usually surrounded by a scale-Die 

 8-leaved involucre. Calyx 4-parted, and with 2 or 3 faractlets at its hase. Pet- 

 als 4, strap-shaped, long and narrow, spirally involute in the hud. Stamens 8, 

 very short ; the 4 alternate frith the petals anther-bearing, the others imperfect 



and scale-like. Styles 2, short. Pod Opening loculicidally from the top; the 

 outer coat separating from the inner, which encloses the single large and bony 

 seed in each cell, hut soon hursts elastieally into two pieces. — Tall shrubs, with 

 straight-veined leaves, and yellow, perfect or polygamous flowers. (From apa, 

 like to, and fi-rjkis, an apple-tree; a name anciently applied to the Medlar, or 

 some other tree resembling the Apph, which the Witch-Hazel does not.) 



1. II. Via'giiaica, L. Leaves ohovate or oval, wavy-toothed, somewhat 

 downy when young. — Damp woods: blossoming late in autumn, when tho 

 leaves are falling, and maturing its seeds the next summer. 



