344 TREES IN" WINTER 



WITCH HAZEL 



Hamamelis virginiaiia L. 



HABIT — A larg-e shrub or small tree occasionally 25-30 ft. in heig-ht 

 with a trunk diameter of 10-14 inches, with short trunk, spreading- 

 crooked branches with conspicuous persistent fruiting- capsules, form- 

 ing a broad open head. 



BARK — Light brown, more or less mottled, generally smooth or 

 minutely scaly. 



TWIGS — Rather slender, light orange brown, smooth and shining, or 

 downy especially toward apex, more or less zigzag-. LENTICELS — few, 

 scattered, whitish dots. 



LiEAP-SCARS — Alternate, 2-ranked, small, inversely triangular. STI- 

 PULE-SCARS — distinct, narrow, oblong-, somewhat separate from leaf- 

 scar. BUNDLE-SCARS — Whitish in conspicuous contrast to dark brown 

 surface of leaf-scar, generally 3 and separate or these may be com- 

 pounded or more or less confluent. 



BUDS — Stalked, flattish, slightly curved, densely downy with short, 

 fine light to dark olive brown hairs; terminal bud larg-er than laterals, 

 5-12 mm. long. BUD-SCALES — an outer pair of relatively thin scales 

 corresponding to stipules and often represented by only a scar accom- 

 panying the outermost thick downy laterally folded undeveloped leaf, 

 which with smaller leaves within serves the function of bud scales. The 

 bud is therefore essentially naked. 



FRUIT — Produced in abundance, a downy 2-chambered capsule about 

 15 mm. long, surrounded by the persistent calyx, discharging in autumn 

 4 shining, brown, oblong seeds and remaining widely gaping on the 

 tree throughout winter (see lower part of twig- picture). The plant 

 produces flowers in the autumn at the same time with the ripening of 

 the fruit, and the remains of the flowers, showing the 4 downy sepals 

 with their enclosing bracts, are to be found in clusters on the recent 

 twigs (upper part of twig picture). 



COMPARISONS — In habitat and in its stalked buds the Witch Hazel 

 resembles the Alders. The buds of the latter, however, are essentially 

 smooth or at most fine-downy, not hairy and their fruit is a woody 

 cone not a capsule. 



DISTRIBUTION — In moist or wet often rocky places. Nova Scotia to 

 Ontario and Minnesota; south to Florida and Texas; west to eastern 

 Nebraska. 



IN NEW ENGLAND— Common throughout. 



WOOD — Heavy, hard, very close-grained, light brown tinged with red, 

 with thick nearly white sapwood of 30-40 layers of annual growth. The 

 bark is slightly astringent and though not known to have essential 

 properties is largely used in the form of fluid extracts and decoctions 

 as a popular application for sprains and bruises, Pond's Extract being 

 made by distilling- the bark in dilute alcohol. Probably equally 

 eflficacious is the use of the twigs as divining rods to locate water and 

 minerals. 



