202 PLANTS GROWING IN RICH OR ROCKY SOIL. 
contre with the shrub. When standing lost in admiration of 
it, he found himself wounded first on the cheek and then in 
the eye. Inalarm he looked about for a hidden adversary and 
discovered it was the seeds of the witch-hazel which were 
bursting out from their coverings and shooting in all directions, 
he noticed to a distance of forty feet. 
Again there is supposed to be some latent mysterious power 
about the twigs, which in remote parts of the country are still 
used as divining rods and to locate the presence of water 
underground. We feel a little more comfortable about the 
shrub when we remember that the extract from it is very do- 
mestic. In fact, we are occasionally informed that no household 
without it can possibly exist. 

