342 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



fleshy albumen ; cotyledons oblong, f oliaceous, longer than the radicle turned toward 

 the oblong depressed hilum. 



Hamamelis is confined to eastern North America and eastern Asia, with one 

 American and two or three Asiatic species. 



The name is from fi/xo, at the same time with, and JUTJAIS an Apple-tree, and was 

 applied by the ancients to the Medlar or some similar tree. 



1. Hamamelis Virginiana, L. Witch Hazel. 



Leaves obovate, acuminate, long-pointed or sometimes rounded at the apex, very 

 unequal at the base, the lower side rounded or subcordate, the upper usually wedge- 

 shaped and smaller, irregularly and coarsely serrate-toothed above the middle, entire 

 or dentate below, when they unfold with veins, especially on the lower surface, 

 petioles, and stipules coated with stellate ferrugineous pubescence, at maturity mem- 

 branaceous, dull dark green and glabrous or pilose above, lighter colored, lustrous, 

 and pubescent or puberulous on the stout midribs and 6 or 7 pairs of primary veins 

 below, 4'-6' long, 2'-2^' broad, turning delicate yellow color in the autumn; their 



stipules lanceolate, acute, coriaceous, \'-% long. Flowers from buds appearing in 

 August on short recurved peduncles developed from the axils of leaves of the year, 

 covered like the acute bracts and bractlets with dark ferrugineous pubescence, 

 opening from the middle of September to the middle of November; calyx in the 

 autumn coated on the outer surface with thick pale pubescence, orange-brown on 

 the inner surface, the rounded lobes ciliate on the margins; petals bright yellow, 

 '-' long, falling like the stamens as soon as the ovules are fertilized; ovary remaining 

 during the winter without enlarging and surrounded and protected by the pubescent 

 calyx. Fruit ripening in the autumn, usually 2 from each flower-cluster, discharging 

 its seeds when the flowers of the season are expanding, ^' long, pubescent, dull 

 orange-brown and surrounded for half its length by the large persistent calyx bearing 

 at its base the blackened remnants of the floral bracts; seed \' long. 



A tree, occasionally 25-30 high, with a short trunk 12'-14' in diameter, spread- 

 ing branches forming a broad open head, and slender flexible branchlets coated at 

 first with scurfy rusty stellate hairs, gradually disappearing during the summer, and 

 in their first winter glabrous or slightly puberulous, light orange-brown and marked 



