TREES AND SHRUBS. 



HAMAMELIS VERNALIS, Saeg. 



Hamamelis vernalis, n. sp. 



Leaves oblong-obovate, acute or rounded at the apex, cuneate and entire below and sinuate- 

 dentate above the middle ; when they unfold glabrous above and coated on the midribs and veins 

 below with stellate hairs mixed with fascicles of long matted straight hairs, or stellate-pubescent 

 on the two surfaces, and at maturity thin, dark yellow-green above, pale and often glaucous, espe- 

 cially early in the season, on the lower surface, and more or less rusty-pubescent or nearly glabrous 

 on the under side of the midribs and veins, from 8 to 10 centimetres long and from 5 to 7 centi- 

 metres wide ; petioles stout, coated with matted pale or rusty hairs ; stipules lanceolate, acuminate, 

 scarious, hoary-pubescent, 5 or 6 millimetres in length, caducous. Flowers in axillary clusters, on 

 stout rusty-tomentose peduncles; calyx-lobes rounded, ciliate on the margins, tomentose on the 

 outer surface, dark red on the inner surface ; petals light yellow. Fruit about 1.5 centimetres 

 long ; seeds acute, dark chestnut-brown or nearly black. 



A shrub, rarely more than 2 metres high, spreading by stolons into broad thickets, with small 

 pale gray-brown stems and slender branchlets densely stellate-pubescent and covered with long 

 pale deciduous hairs when they first appear, becoming glabrous in their third year. Flowers from 

 the end of January until the end of March. Fruit ripens in early summer. 



Gravelly banks of streams, often inundated. Missouri : tributaries of the Upper Meramec Eiver, 

 G. Engelmann, November, 1845 ; Pilot Knob, Iron County, G. Engelmann, September 9, 1859, 

 JST. M. Glutfelter, August 20, 1905 (No. 179); Ironton, Iron County, Russell, July, 1897; East- 

 ern Iron County, W. Trelease, August 18, 1907 (No. 424); Carter County, H. Eygert, June 6, 

 1893 ; Williamsville, Wayne County, H. Eggert, June 21, 1893, B. F. Bush, April 1, 1893, W. 

 Trelease, September 9, 1897 (No. 425); Shannon County, B. F. Bush, October 21, 1893; 

 Pleasant Grove, Ripley County, K. K. Mackenzie, July 25, 1897 (No. 419); Galena, Stone 

 County, E. J. Palmer, November 18, 1905 (No. 16) (all in herb. Missouri Bot. Gard.); near 

 Monteer, Shannon County, B. F. Bush, August, 1894 ; Monteer, B. F. Bush (Nos. 4875, 5344, 

 5393); Branson, B. F. Bush, October 28, 1908 (No. 5385) ; Grandin, Carter County, B. F. Bush, 

 May 7, 1905 (No. 2731) ; Swan, Taney County, B. F. Bush, May 7, 1905 (Nos. 2731, 4854 

 type for fruit, 4915 and 5394 type for flowers) ; Eagle Rock, B. F. Bush (Nos. 102, 3239) (all 

 in herb. Arnold Arboretum). Arkansas: Eureka Springs, Carroll County, B. F. Bush, May 8, 

 1902 (No. 1512), JV. M. Glatfelter, July 17, 1898; Sulphur Potash Springs, W. Trelease, Sep- 

 tember 3, 1897; Hot Springs, Garland County, W. Trelease, October 3, 1898; Mt. Mena, W. 

 Trelease, June 1, 1898 (all in herb. Mo. Bot. Gard.) ; Eureka Springs, Carroll County, G. S. Sar- 

 gent, May 8, 1902 (in herb. Arnold Arboretum). Oklahoma : Cherokee Nation, J. W. Blankin- 

 ship, August 19, 1895 (in herb. Gray). 



The different species of Hamamelis offer no good morphological characters, the structure of the flowers, fruit and 

 seeds being the same in them all. The plant, however, from southern Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana is so distinct 

 in its time of flowering, in the bright red color of the inner surface of the calyx-lobes, in the pale color of the under 

 surface of the leaves, and in the amount Ire t icy of the pubescence on the leaves and branches that it appears 

 desirable to distinguish it specifically from Hamamelis virginiana. The habit, too, of spreading by stolons into great 

 thickets, and the fact that it grows so far as I have seen it only in the gravelly beds and margins of streams, also seem 

 to separate it from the eastern species, which inhabits rich woodlands and upland pastures. In the color of the inner 

 surface of the calyx-lobes and in its time of flowering Hamamelis vernalis resembles the Japanese species. 



