134 TREES 



Tlie witch hazel (Hamamelis Virginiana, Linn.) is a stout, 

 many-stemmed shrub or a small tree,' with rough unsymmet- 

 rical leaves, strongly veined, coarsely toothed, and roughly 

 diamond-shaped. The twigs, when bare, are set with hairy 

 sickle-shaped buds. Nowhere in summer would an under- 

 growth of witch hazel trees attract attention. But in 

 autumn, when other trees have reached a state of utter rest, 

 the witch hazel wakes and bursts into bloom. Among the 

 dead leaves which stubbornly cling as they yellow, and 

 often persist until spring, the tiny buds, the size of a pin- 

 head, open into starry blossoms with petals like gold 

 threads. The witch hazel thicket is veiled with these gold- 

 mesh flowers, as ethereal as the haunting perfume which 

 they exhale. Frost crisps the delicate petals but they curl 

 up like shavings and stay till spring. At no time is the 

 weather cold enough to destroy this November flower show. 



Among the blossoms are the pods in clusters, gaping 

 wide if the seeds are shed; closed tight, with little monkey 

 faces, if not yet open. The harvest of witch hazel seeds 

 is worth going far to see. Damp weather delays this most 

 interesting little game. Dry frosty weather is ideal for it. 



Go into a witch hazel thicket on some fine morning in 

 early November and sit down on the drift of dead leaves 

 that carpet the woods floor. The silence is broken now 

 and then by a sharp report like a bullet striking against the 

 bark of a near-by trunk, or skipping among the leaves. 

 Perhaps a twinge on the ear shows that you have been a 

 target for some tiny projectile, sent to its mark with force 

 enough to hurt. 



The fusillade comes from the ripened pods, which have a 

 remarkable ability to throw their seeds, and thus do for the 

 parent tree what the winged seeds of other trees accom- 



