88 



HAMAMELIDACEAE. 



HAMAMELIS. Witch Hazel. 

 (Family Hamamelidaceae). 



Shrubs or exceptionally small 

 trees: deciduous. Twigs rounded, 

 zig-zag, rather slender, from dingy 

 stellate-tomentose becoming glab- 

 rate and sometimes rather glossy: 

 pith moderately small, roundish, 

 continuous, at first green. Buds 

 moderate, stalked, oblong, tomen- 

 tulose, with 2 stipular scales or 

 naked when these have fallen, 

 often developed into short colla- 

 teral recurved branches bearing 

 about 3 flower-buds or flowers or 

 incipient capsules. Leaf-scars al- 

 ternate, 2-ranked, half-round or 

 somewhat 3-lobed, somewhat 

 raised and with their surface 

 again falling in spring: bundle- 

 traces 3, often compound: stipule- 

 scars unequal, one round and the 

 other somewhat elongated. 

 The curious double abscission of the petiole forms the 



subject of a note, by Foerste in the Bulletin of the Torrey 



Botanical Club for 1884. 



Winter-character references: Hamamelis japonica. Shi- 



rasawa, 267, pi. 9. H. virginiana. Blakeslee & Jarvis, 331, 



478, pi.; Brendel, pi. 4; Schneider, f. 96. 



1. Buds long (fully 10 mm. including stalk). H. japonica. 

 Buds short (5-8 mm. including stalk). 2. 



2. Flowering in autumn. (1). H. virginiana. 

 Flowering in late winter. 3. 



3. Pubescence scurfy. H. vernalis. 

 Pubescence long. H. mollis. 



