230 THE WITCH-HAZEL FAMILY. 



FOTHERGILLA. {Plate LXIX.) 



Fothergilla major. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Witch-hazel. Creaju-ivhiie. J-'yagyant. Gcoygia to I'irginia. April. 



/7£7w^rj- ; growing in large, dense, catkin-like spikes and appearing before or 

 as the leaves untold. Brads : often three-lobed ; pubescent. Calyx ; cam- 

 panulate, with from five to seven obscure lobes. Fetals : none. Stameiis : 

 very numerous ; much exserted. Capsule : two lobed ; pubescent ; the lobes 

 pointed with the slender styles; one seed in each valve. Leaves: with short, 

 pubescent petioles ; broadly oval, blunt or short-pointed at the apex and narrowed 

 or rounded at the base ; usually one-sided ; irregularly dentate or crenate, be- 

 coming entire towards the base ; thick ; pubescent at least when young. A 

 shrub two to five feet high. 



As a fluffy mass of long white stamens does the bloom of this attractive 

 shrub present itself ; and very early in the season it enlivens the mountain 

 slopes, or glimmers from well kept grounds where it is cultivated. In the 

 autumn the foliage turns to brilliant gold. The fruit, not unlike that of the 

 witch-hazel, has also the trait of bursting open and ejecting its bony seeds 

 to a great distance. 



F. Carolina, not nearly as large or showy a plant as the one just de- 

 scribed, bears its flowers in small dense spikes, seldom more than an inch 

 long. They open when the leaves are very young. These latter have ovate 

 and pubescent stipules which fall quite early. In moist soil and thickets 

 it thrives best and as far southward as Florida. 



SWEET GUM. STAR=LEAVED GUM. BILSTED. 

 ALLIGATOR TREE. {Plate LXX.) 



Llqtiiddmbar styraciflua. 



Bar/e: reddish brown ; very rough. BrancJilets : usually covered with corky 

 ridges. Stipules : lanceolate ; entire. Leaves : with slender petioles ; rounded 

 in outline; cordate at the base ; palmately-lobed, the lobes from five to seven 

 usually five ; finely serrate ; brilliant, smooth and lustrous above; ribs tufted in 

 the angles below'. Odour : pleasant, when bruised. Fhnvers^ : monoecious ; 

 the staminate ones growing in a dense terminal raceme ; the pistillate ones grow- 

 ing in an axillary, peduncled head. Frii/l : a hanging globose ball _of_ woody 

 pointed pods which open and release the few good seeds contained within each 

 one. 



There are few indeed of our native trees which can rival in beauty and 

 symmetry of outline the sweet gum. As it occurs through the forests its 

 character is quite distinct from all others, only resembling somewhat in its 

 rounded crown, the sugar maple. Through the Alleghany ridges it is not 



