CAPRIFOLIACE^E. 



351 



H. virginiana, Linn. — Leaves obovate, obtuse, with a sinuate-crenate margin, obliquely 

 subcordate at base ; scabrous with minute elevated spots beneath. Calyx and fruit pubes- 

 cent. 



Pursh., FL Am. i. 116 ; Barton, Fl. N. A., t. 78 ; Darlington, Fl. Cest. 

 114; Rafinesque, Med. Fl. i. 227. 



Common Names. — Witch Hazel ; Winter Bloom, &c. 



Description. — A shrub from six to twelve feet high, 

 with flexuous branches, and a smooth gray bark. Fig. 165. 



Leaves on short petioles, alternate, obovate, unequally 

 subcordate at base, margin sinuate-crenate. Flowers 

 on short pedicels, in small clusters. Calyx small, with 

 four thick, oval, pubescent segments, and having two 

 or three small bracts at base. Petals four, yellow, 

 ligulate, a little crisped. Stamens four, fertile, alter- 

 nate with the petals, and four sterile at their base. 

 Ovary ovate, with two short styles, crowned by obtuse 

 stigmas. Fruit a nut-like capsule, bilobate and split 

 above, yellowish, pubescent, with two cells, each con- 

 taining an oblong black seed, which are dispersed by 

 the elastic valves of the capsule opening rapidly. 



This shrub is found in most parts of the 

 United States, and presents several varieties, 

 which have been considered as species by h. virginica. 



Walter, Pursh, and others. The flowers are 



generally polygamous, and the female flowers often apetalous. The shoots 

 are used as divining rods to discover water and metals under ground, by 

 certain adepts in the occult arts. The bark and leaves are bitter and astringent, 

 leaving a sweetish taste in the mouth. The odour is pleasant and somewhat 

 aromatic. No analysis has been made of them. 



Medical Uses, SfC. — It is said to be sedative, astringent and tonic, and was 

 much employed by the Indians, and is in use in some parts of the country in 

 domestic practice. The bark is applied to painful tumours and external in- 

 flammations, chronic ophthalmia, &c, in the form of a decoction or cata- 

 plasm. A tea of the leave's is used as an astringent in bowel affections, and 

 haemorrhages. This article seems to have some peculiar powers, and deserves 

 a careful investigation. 



Sub-Class II»— Monopetalous Exogenous Plants* 



Floral envelopes consisting of both calyx and corolla ; the petals more or less united 

 or gamopetalous. 



Group XXIIL— Cinchonales. 



Order 57 .~CAPRIFOLIACEiE.—/w5s^. 



Tube of the calyx adherent to the ovary. Margin 5-parted. Corolla tubular or rotate. 

 Lobes imbricate in aestivation. Stamens equal in number and alternate with the lobes 

 of the corolla, and inserted into the tube. Anthers introrse, versatile. Ovary 3 (or 4 — 5) 

 celled, with one to several pendulous ovules in each cell. Style filiform, with a some- 

 what capitate stigma, or wanting. Stigmas 1 — 4. Fruit baccate, fleshy, or sometimes 

 dry, sometimes 1-celled by abortion. Seeds anatropous. Embryo in the axis of the 

 fleshy albumen. 



