WILD PASTURES 



nuts which are the product of last 

 year's blossoms. Then in the late au- 

 tumn, even November, you will find it 

 in bloom, twisting yellow petal fingers 

 in mourning at the fall of its own 

 leaves. 



Pluck one of the nuts of a midsum- 

 mer evening and look it intently in the 

 face. Note the little shrewd pig eyes of 

 the witch far ingrown in it, the funny 

 shrewish tip-tilted nose, the puffy cheeks 

 and eyelids. See that slender horn in 

 the forehead, the sure mark of the 

 witch. No wonder that it has the name 

 witch-hazel with such ways and such 

 faces growing all over it at a time 

 when most other trees and shrubs have 

 but finished blossoming. But if you 

 want further proof that this shrub har- 

 bors witches you need but to examine 

 its oval, wavy- toothed leaves just at this 

 114 



