XXXV 



THE WITCH HAZELS 



Hamamelis 



Hamamelis mollis .... Chinese Witch Hazel 

 japonica . . . Japanese Witch Hazel 

 var. arborea 



Zuccariniana 

 mrginiana . . . Virginian Witch Hazel 



FROM the East and from the West the Witch 

 Hazels have come to our land to touch with 

 bright gold the grey of our winter landscape. 

 Just when all Nature seems sinking into deep repose, 

 their gaunt bare branches begin to bestir themselves 

 for a plant's supreme effort the effort to reproduce 

 itself and out between the rough, leathery scales of 

 their dark buds delicate yellow coils suggest themselves. 

 The coils shake out into fringe-like tufts, and soon the 

 whole shrub or small tree as it often is has its 

 branches vestured in these fairy-like ribbons. Very 

 quaint, very un-English is the general effect, and indeed 

 all the Witch Hazels are foreigners to us and bear no 

 relation whatever to our native hazel with its swaying 

 yellow catkins. Of the three species found in our 



gardens, one the handsomest Hamamelis mollis, comes 



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