1905] SHOEMAKER—HAMAMELIS VIRGINIANA 249 
tube reaches the embryo sac at the latest by the beginning of Novem- 
ber, and it is not until May of the next year that the embryo begins 
to form. This plant and the autumn-flowering species of Crocus, 
like Hamamelis virginiana, bloom and shed their pollen in the fall. 
HOFMEISTER’s account of Colchicum shows that it differs essentially 
from Hamamelis in the behavior of the pollen tube and the time of 
fertilization. The other genera named as having a longer or shorter 
period between pollination and the beginning of embryonic growth 
are all pollinated in the spring, so that the resting period for most 
of them does not extend through the winter. 
The family of the Hamamelidaceae comprises some fifty species, 
in eighteen genera, of which eight are monotypic. North America 
has three representative genera: Hamamelis, Liquidambar, and 
Fothergilla. The first is found nearly always in such sheltered places 
as harbor Polystichum acrostichoides, from Labrador to Florida and 
west to the Mississippi River. The second is found on the coastal 
plain and on bottom lands from New York to Florida, thence to 
Central America, and up the Mississippi River to southern Indiana. 
The third is found from Virginia to Florida, east of the Appalachian 
Mountains. Hamamelis has two moré species, one in southern 
China and one in Japan; Liquidambar is also represented by two 
species which occur in southern Asia from Asia Minor to Formosa; 
and Fothergilla is represented by one other species in Persia. The 
remaining genera are confined to southern and eastern Asia and 
Malaysia, with the exception of three genera found in Madagascar 
and southern Africa. Thus the whole family, with the exception of 
three genera, is confined to the eastern and southern parts of North 
America and Asia. This peculiar and as yet unexplained distribution 
occurs in a large number of genera, but this family is one of the most 
Pronounced cases found. It should also be said that Hamamelites 
and Parrotia are found in the Dakota group of the Cretaceous (9), 
and that Hamamelis (5) and Hamamelidanthium are found in Eocene 
strata in northern Europe, so that the family had formerly a much 
more extended range than at present. 
I have usually found Hamamelis on rather steep hillsides with a 
horthern exposure, or more rarely on low ground along streams. 
It is said to grow abundantly on mountain tops in Pennsylvania 
