HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



leaves. Found in moist woods from New England to Michi- 

 gan and southward. To this Family the aromatic sassafras 

 tree belongs, sometimes a shrub, with similar flowers. 



Witch-hazel 



Hamamelis <virginikna. — Family, Witch-hazel. Color, yellow. 

 Leaves, alternate, straight-veined, simple, oval or ovate, wavy- 

 margined, downy beneath. Calyx, 4-cleft, with bractlets under- 

 neath. Petals, 4, long, narrow, strap-shape, 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. August to October. 



A slender shrub with crooked branches, sometimes attain- 

 ing 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 next sum- 

 mer, 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 attracted by a bush which showed 

 an unusual profusion of bloom, and while standing close be- 

 side it in admiration I was suddenly stung on the cheek by 

 some missile, and the next instant shot in the eye by another, 

 the mysterious marksman having apparently let off both 

 barrels of his little gun directly in my face. I soon discovered 

 him, an army of them — in fact, a saucy legion — all grinning 

 with open mouths and white teeth exposed, and their double- 

 barreled guns loaded to the muzzle and ready to shoot when- 

 ever the whim should take them." 



Within my memory the twigs of this shrub have been used 

 to detect the presence of water beneath the ground. I recall 

 an old man solemnly stalking over my father's place with a 

 magic witch-hazel wand in his hand. I followed him expec- 

 tantly, hoping to see the rod tremble. Whether in this in- 

 stance the old farmer's sign was distrusted., or whether the twig 

 did not shake, I cannot remember. The well was never dug. 



The witch-hazel, when properly prepared, is esteemed a 

 valuable household remedy. (See illustration, p. 429.) 



Dyer's Greenweed. Woad-waxen. Whin 



Genista tinctoria. — Family, Pulse. Color, yellow. Corolla, of 

 the papilionaceous type, with a long keel. Of the stamens, 5 



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