hamamelacejE. (witch-hazel familx.) 173 



Order 37. HAMAMELACE^. (Witch-Hazel Family.) 



Shrubs or trees, with alternate simple leaves and deciduous stipules; flow- 

 ers in heads or spikes, often polygamous or monoecious ; the calyx cohering 

 with the base of the ovary ; which consists of 2 pistils united below, and forms 

 a 2-beaked, 2-celled woody pod, opening at the summit, tinth a single bony seed 

 in each cell, or several, only one or two of them ripening. — Petals inserted 

 on the calyx, narrow, valvate, or involute in the bud, or often none at all. 

 Stamens twice as many as the petals, and half of them sterile and changed 

 into scales, or numerous. Seeds anatropous. Embryo large and straight, 

 in sparing albumen : cotyledons broad and flat. 



Tribe I. HAMAMELE^. Flowers with a manifest calyx or calyx and corolla, and a 

 single ovule suspended from the summit of each cell. 



1. Hamamells. Petals 4, strap-shaped. Stamens and scales each 4, short. 



2. Fothergilla. Petals none. Stamens about 24, long ; lilaments thickened upwards. 

 Tribe II. BALSAMIFUJ.^. Flowers naked, with barely rudiments of a calyx, and 



no corolla, crowded into catkin-like heads. Ovules several or many in each cell. 



3. Ijlquldanibar. Monoecious or polygamous. Stamens very numerous. Pods consoli- 



dated by their bases in a dense head. 



1. HAMAMELIS, L. Witcii-Hazel. 



Flowers in little axillary clusters or heads, usually surrounded by a scale-like 

 3-leaved involucre. Calyx 4-parted, and with 2 or 3 bractlets at its base. Pet- 

 als 4, strap-shaped, long and narrow, spirally involute in the bud. Stamens 8, 

 very short ; the 4 alternate with the petals anther-bearing, the others imperfect 

 and scale-like. Styles 2, short. Pod opening loculicidally from the top ; the 

 outer coat separating from the inner, which encloses the single large and bony 

 seed in ench cell, but soon bursts elastically into two pieces. — Tall shrubs, with 

 straight-veined leaves, and yellow, perfect or polygamous flowers. (From a^a, 

 like to, and iirfKls, an apple-tree; a name anciently applied to the Medlar, or some 

 other tree resembling the Apple, which the Witch-Hazel does not.) 



1. jj_ Virginica, L. Leaves oborate or oval, wa\T'-toothed, somewhat 

 downy when young. — Damp woods: blossoming late in autumn, when the 

 leaves are falling, and maturing its seeds the next summer. 



2. FOTHEEGILLA, L. f Fothekgilla. 



Flowers in a terminal catkin-like spike, mostly perfect. Calyx bell-shaped, 

 the summit truncate, slightly 5-7-toothed. Petals none. Stamens about 24, 

 borne on the margin of the calyx in one row, all alike : filaments very long, 

 thickened at the top (white). Styles 2, slender. Pod cohering with the base 

 of the calyx, 2-lobed, 2-celled, with a single bony seed in each cell. — A low 

 shrub ; the oval or obovate leaves smooth, or hoary underneath, toothed at the 

 summit ; the flowers appearing rather before the leaves, each partly covered by 

 a scale-like bract. (Dedicated to the distinguished Dr. John Fothergill.) 



1. r. alnifdlia. L. f. — Low grounds, Virginia and southward. April, 

 May. 



