178 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



uninviting. The best known of these is the Japanese 

 Witch Hazel {H. japonica), so abundant in the woods 

 of the Nikko region of Japan and elsewhere in that 

 land. It is a large bush from twelve to fifteen feet high, 

 with many stiff, ascending-spreading branches and 

 twiggy shoots and smooth leaves like those of the 

 native H. virginiana. The star-shaped flowers, each 

 with five long, strap-like, canary-yellow petals, sur- 

 rounded by a calyx which is wine-colored on the in- 

 side, are fragrant and thickly stud the shoots and 

 branches. The variety arborea is distinguished by its 

 more golden-yellow petals and more richly colored 

 calyx and its flowers open a little in advance of those 

 of the type. 



The finest of the genus is the Chinese H. mollis, 

 which is similar in habit to the Japanese kind but has 

 larger flowers which open earlier and larger leaves 

 which are softly hairy on the underside. This shrub 

 is native of the mountains of central China and, al- 

 though it is now some thirty-six years since it was in- 

 troduced to cultivation by the late Charles Maries, 

 it is little known and far too rarely seen in gardens. 

 A few years ago a Witch Hazel, which forms thickets 

 in the gravelly beds and on the margins of streams in 

 southern Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana, was 

 recognized as a new species and named H. vernalis. 



