496 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



66. Sweet-scented Shrub. Strawberry-shrub, 

 Carolina Allspice 



Calycanthus floridus. — Family, Calycanthus. Color, pur- 

 plish brown. Leaves, opposite, entire, oval, downy underneath. 

 Time, June. 



Petals and sepals alike, in many rows, lance-shaped, joined 

 to the top of the calyx-tube. Stamens, many, some of them 

 without anthers. Pistils, growing, like those of the rose, from 

 within the calyx-tube. This cup enlarges, and when ripe en- 

 closes the achenes. When crushed or held in the hand for a 

 short time, the flowers give forth the fragrance of a straw- 

 berry. 



A shrub indigenous in Virginia and southward, but known by 

 cultivation in Northern gardens. Thickly branching, and, with its 

 dark-brown flowers, rather handsome. 



67. Witch-hazel 



Hamamelis Virginiana. — Family, Witch-hazel. Color, yel- 

 low. Leaves, alternate, straight-veined, simple, oval or ovate, 

 wavy-margined, downy beneath. Time, August to October. 



Calyx, 4-cleft, with bractlets underneath. Petals, 4, long, 

 narrow, strap - shaped, sometimes twisted. Stamens, short, 4 

 perfect and 4 without anthers. Styles, 2. Fruit, a 2-horned 

 capsule. Seeds, 2 in each capsule, hard, black, tipped with 

 white. Flowers, sessile, 3 or 4 in axillary clusters, with a scale- 

 like, 3-leaved involucre underneath. 



A slender shrub with crooked branches, sometimes attaining 

 the size of a tree 10 to 30 feet high, but seldom growing like a 

 tree with a single trunk. By blossoming in the fall, while the 

 leaves are dropping, and maturing seed the next summer, this 

 plant reverses the seasons. The seeds, when ripe, are often ejected 

 from the pod with considerable force — "sometimes,'' says Mr. 

 Gibson, " to a distance of 40 feet." He writes : " I had been at- 



