TREES AND SHRUBS FURXISHIXG MEDICINAL BARKS. 



27 



Collection, prices, and uses. — In the spring the hark can he readily removed 

 in quills, and this is generally the time when it is gathered. 



At present the price paid to collectors is about ."» cents a pound. 



The bark is used as a remedy against worms and is also employed in the 

 treatment of fevers. 



The fruits are likewise employed in medicine. 



WITCH-HAZEL. 



Hamamelis virginiana L. 



Pharmacopaial name. — Hamamelis. 



Other common names. — Snapping hazel, winterbloom, wych-hazel. striped 

 alder, spotted alder, tobacco-wood. 



Habitat and range. — Witch-hazel is found in low damp woods from New 

 Brunswick to Minnesota, south to Florida and Texas. 



Description of sit rub. — This indigenous shrub is one of our most peculiar 

 plants, inasmuch as it begins to flower when all other trees and plants not only 

 are through flowering, but generally 

 have lost their foliage, namely, in 

 November or even Dec-ember. The 

 seed is formed, but does not ripen 

 until the following season. The 

 peculiar, yellow, threadlike flowers 

 among the usually bare branches at 

 a season when most other vegetation 

 is dead and the snow sometimes flies 

 is a novel sight. 



Witch-hazel sometimes grows to 

 about 25 feet in height, usually only 

 8 to 15 feet, with a crooked stem 

 covered with smoothish brown bark, 

 often with a growth of lichens, and 

 having many long, forking branches. 

 The leaves are 3 to 5 inches long, 

 broadly oval or heart-shaped oval. 

 with uneven sides, wavy margins and 

 downy hairs when young, but be- 

 coming smooth as they grow older 

 i Qg. 22 i . 



The flowers, as already stated, appear 

 very late in autumn : they are bright 

 yellow, and consist of a 4-parted corolla, with four long, narrow, strap-shaped 

 petals, which are variously twisted when in full flower. The beaked, densely 

 hairy seed capsule matures the following season, bursting open elastically, and 

 scattering the large, black and shining, bonelike seeds for a distance of several 

 feet. Thus, while the tree is in flower, there may bo seen at the same time the 

 mature seed capsules of the previous season. (Fig. 22.) This shrub belongs 

 to the witch-hazel family (Hamamelidacese). 



Description of bark. — Under witch-hazel or hamamelis bark, official in the 

 United States Pharmacopoeia, is understood the bark and twigs of the witch- 

 hazel. The bark is found in commerce in the form of quills, varying in length 

 and width, and is sometimes a purplish brown on the outside, sometimes a 

 whitish or grayish brown color; occasionally it is smooth with a few warty 

 139 



Fig. 22, — Witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana). 



leaves, flowers, and capsules. 



