THE WITCH HAZEL FAMILY 



HAMAMELIDACEiE Lindley 



' AMAMELIDACE^ comprise some 13 genera, containing nearly 40 

 species of trees or shrubs. They occur in eastern North America, 

 Asia, and south Africa. 



The leaves are simple, alternate, entire, toothed or lobed, stalked 

 and stipulate; the flowers usually perfect, sometimes polygamous or monoecious, 

 borne in various forms of clusters, either axillary or terminal, the perianth often 

 imperfect and sometimes entirely absent; the calyx-tube, if any, is more or less 

 adnate to the ovary and there are 4 or 5 sepals; petals, if present, 4 or 5 in num- 

 ber, elongated, and inserted at the base of the sepals; stamens 4 to 10; half of them 

 are usually rudimentary; filaments distinct, anthers introrse; ovary 2-celled, com- 

 posed of 2 carpels united at the base; styles 2, distinct, awl-shaped, erect or curved; 

 stigmas simple; ovules usually solitary or sometimes more, suspended and hori- 

 zontal. Thcfruit is a 2-celled, 2-beaked, woody or cartilaginous capsule, opening 

 at the top; the seeds, i or several, shining, anatropous; embryo large and straight 

 in fleshy to bony endosperm. 



In addition to the arborescent genus that occurs in our area, the genus of 

 shrubs, FothergiUa, known as Dwarf alder, which occurs o61y in, eastern North 

 America, from Virginia southward, is represented by three ,Sp^es. 



WITCH HAZEL 



GENUS HAMAMELIS LINN^US 

 Species Hamamelis virginiana Linnaeus 



HE Witch hazel, also called Witch elm, occurs throughout eastern 

 North America from Nova Scotia to Ontario and Minnesota south to 

 Florida and Texas; westwardly it extends into eastern Nebraska. 

 As a shrub it is one of the most frequent of woody plants in this area, 

 occurring in low, rich thickets and woodlands; southward it often becomes a tree, 

 with a maximum height of 10 meters and a trunk diameter of i dm. 



The trunk is short, the branches diverging irregularly and usually forming an 

 open tree; the bark is about 5 mm. thick, light brown and scaly; the twigs are 

 almost round, rather slender, and covered with rough brown hairs, but by autumn 

 have become quite smooth, dark brown, and marked by a few light-colored circular 

 spots; the winter buds are sharp-pointed, somewhat curved, light brown and 



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