HAMAMELIDACEAZ—WITCH HAZEL 
FAMILY 
WITCH HAZEL 
Hamamélis virginiana. 
Hamamelis is a name anciently applied to a tree which blos- 
somed at the same time as the apple tree. Witch is a modern 
spelling of the Saxon wich or wych. The meaning of the word 
in this connection is doubtful; Loudon refers it to salt springs, 
moist places; other authorities think it means pendulous, droop- 
ing. Two trees are so named—the wych elm and the wych hazel. 
A shrub of numerous diverging stems ten to fifteen feet high, be- 
coming a small tree only on the mountains of North and South 
Carolina and Tennessee. Found in deep ravines, north shaded hill- 
sides and at the edge of woodlands. Roots fibrous. 
Bark.—Light brown, smooth, scaly, inner bark reddish purple. 
Branchlets at first scurfy ; later smooth, light orange brown, marked 
with occasional small white dots, finally dark or reddish brown. 
Wood.—Light reddish brown, sapwood nearly white; heavy, 
hard, close-grained. Sp. gr., 0.6856; weight of cu. ft., 42.72 lbs. 
Winter Buds.—Acute, slightly falcate, downy, light brown. 
Leaves.—Alternate, simple, obovate or oval, four to six inches 
long, unequal at base, wavy-toothed, acute or rounded at apex. 
Feather-veined; midrib stout with six to seven pairs of primary 
veins. They come out of the bud involute, covered with steilate 
rusty down ; when full grown are dark green above, paler beneath; 
midrib and veins more or less hairy. In autumn they turn yellow 
with rusty spots. Petioles stout, half an inch to an inch long. 
Stipules lanceolate, acute, infolding the buds. 
Flowers.—October, November. Usually perfect, yellow, borne 
in three-flowered clusters on axillary, simple or rarely branched 
peduncles bearing two deciduous bractlets, each flower surrounded 
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