G.40] 



CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION 



107 



GENUS 39. AMELANCHIER. 



Small trees or shrubs with simple, deciduous, alternate, 

 sharply serrate leaves ; cherry-blossom-like, white flow- 

 ers, in racemes at the end of the branches, before the 

 leaves are fully expanded. Fruit a small apple-like pome ; 

 seeds 10 or less, in separate cartilaginous-coated cells. 



Amel&nchier Canad6nsis, Torr. & Gray. 

 (SHAD-BUSH. SERVICE-BEERY.) A very vari- 

 able species with many named varieties. The 

 leaves, 1 to 3j in. long, vary from narrow- 

 oblong to roundish or cordate ; bracts and 

 stipules silky-ciliate. Flowers large, in droop- 

 ing racemes, in early spring, with petals from 

 2 to 5 times as long as wide. Fruit globular, 

 % in. broad, purplish, sweet, edible; ripe in 

 June. It varies from a low shrub to a middle-sized tree, 5 to 30 ft. 

 high. 



ORDER XIX. HAMAMELJDEJE. 



(WlTCH-HAZEL FAMILY.) 



A. Canadensia. 



A small family of trees and shrubs represented in most 

 countries. 



GENUS 40. HAMAMELIS. 



Tall shrubs, rarely tree-like, with alternate, straight- 

 veined, 2-ranked, oval, wavy-margined leaves. Flowers 

 conspicuous, yellow, 4-parted; blooming in the autumn 

 while the leaves are dropping, and continuing in bloom 

 through part of the winter. Fruit rounded capsules 

 which do not ripen till the next summer. 



Hamam&lis Virginiana, L. (WITCH-HAZEL.) 

 The only species ; 10 to 30 ft. high ; rarely grows 

 with a single trunk, but usually forms a slender, 

 crooked-branched shrub. Flowers sessile, in small 

 clusters of 3 to 4, in an involucre in the axils of the 



