606 HAMAMELIS-HEDERA 



and because of the early date at which it flowers (it is often in full bloom on 

 New Year's Day), it has made a very precious addition to the garden 

 flora. It is rather curious that it remained in the Coombe Wood nursery 

 for twenty years, regarded merely as a superior form of japonica. It can 

 be propagated easily by grafting on the Virginian witch-hazel. 



H. VERNALIS, Sargent. 



Professor Sargent has recently (Trees and Shrubs, t. 156) figured and 

 described a new species under this name. It is closely allied to H. virginiana, 

 but is a native of Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana, and resembles the 

 Asiatic species in flowering on the leafless wood from January to March. 

 It differs from H. virginiana also in the following respects : the inner surface 

 of the calyx-lobes is red, and it has the habit of spreading by suckers or 

 underground stems. The Cleaves are of a paler duller green. A plant intro- 

 duced to Kew in 1910 bore' a few flowers in January 1912. It grows naturally 

 on gravelly, often inundated banks of streams, and was collected by Engelmann 

 in Missouri as long ago as 1845. The flowers have a pungent, not very 

 agreeable odour. 



H. VIRGINIANA, Linnaus. VIRGINIAN WITCH-HAZEL. 



(Bot. Mag., t. 6684.) 



A small deciduous tree, 20 or even 30 ft. high in a wild state, often a 

 shrub of bushy habit ; with a short thick trunk and crooked, wide-spreading 

 branches ; young shoots at first downy. Leaves broadly ovate to obovate, 

 3 to 5 ins. long, 2 to 3^ ins. wide ;, unequal at the base, unevenly and coarsely 

 round-toothed, especially on the' upper part ; smooth or nearly so above, 

 downy with stellate hairs on the midrib and veins beneath ; stalk downy, 

 J to \ in. long. Flowers golden yellow, opening in September and continuing 

 until November, produced two to four together in a cluster at the end 

 of a stalk \ in. long ; petals \ to -f in. long, narrowly strap-shaped, crumpled ; 

 calyx with four short, broadly ovate, hairy lobes, yellowish brown inside. 



Native of Eastern N. America from Nova Scotia to the mountains 

 of the Carolinas and Tennessee ; introduced in 1736. This interesting shrub 

 or tree, although so long an inhabitant of our gardens, is not very common 

 nowadays, being eclipsed by the newer, winter-flowering, Asiatic species. 

 The effectiveness of this witch-hazel is spoilt by its being in full leaf at 

 flowering time, so that the blossoms, closely tucked to the twigs, have little 

 chance to show themselves, especially as the leaves turn yellow also before 

 falling. The fruits woody, nutlike bodies ^ in. long, bursting at the top 

 do not ripen and discharge their seeds until twelve months after the time 

 of flowering. Various popular remedies are made from extracts and decoctions 

 of the bark and leaves. 



HEDERA HELIX, Linnceus. COMMON IVY. ARALIACEJL 



An evergreen climber, with a strong, rather acrid odour when crushed, 

 attaching itself to trees, buildings, etc., by means of rootlike growths 

 from the stem, or, where such support is absent, creeping over the 

 ground; young shoots clothed with minute stellate hairs. Leaves 

 alternate, thick, leathery, very dark glossy green, broadly ovate or some- 

 what triangular, those of the climbing shoots with three or five deep or 

 shallow lobes and stalks of varying length. The starry hairs in typical 



