HAMAMliLACEJS. ( WITCH-HAZEL FAMILY.) 173 



Order 37. HAM ARIEL ACE JB. (Witch-Hazel Family.) 



i Shrubs or trees, with alternate simple leaves and deciduous stipules; flow- 

 i ers in heads or spikes, often polygamous or monoecious ; the calyx cohering 



with the base of the ovary ; which consists of 2 pistils united below, and forms 

 ■ a 2-beaked, 2-celled woody pod, opening at the summit, with a single bony seed 



in each cell, or several, only one or two of them ripening. — Petals inserted 



on the calyx, narrow, valvate, or involute in the bud, or often none at all. 

 i Stamens twice as many as the petals, and half of them sterile and changed 



into scales, or numerous. Seeds anatropous. Embryo large and straight, 



in sparing albumen : cotyledons broad and flat. 



I Tribe I. HAMAMELEJE. Flowers with a manifest calyx or calyx and corolla, and a 

 single ovule suspended from the summit of each cell. 



1. Hamauit-lis. Petals 4, strap-shaped. Stamens and scales each 4, short. 



2. Fothergilla. Petals none. Stamens about 24, long : filaments thickened upwards. 



Tribe IE. BAliSAMlFLU/E. Flowers naked, with barely rudiments of a calyx, and 

 no corolla, crowded into catkin-like heads. Ovules several or many in each cell 



3. Liquidambar. Monoecious or polygamous. Stamens very numerous. Pods consoli- 



dated by their bases in a dense head. 



1. HAMAMELIS, L. Witch-Hazel. 



Flowers in little axillary clusters or heads, usually surrounded by a scale-like> 

 3-leaved involucre. Calyx 4-parted, and with 2 or 3 bractlets at its base. Pet- 

 als 4, strap-shaped, long and narrow, spirally involute in the bud. Stamens 8, 

 very short ; the 4 alternate with the petals anther-bearing, the others imperfect 

 and scale-like. Styles 2, short. Pod opening loculicidally from the top ; the 

 outer coat separating from the inner, which encloses the single large and bony 

 seed in each cell, but soon bursts elastically into two pieces. — Tall shrubs, with 

 straight-veined leaves, and yellow, perfect or polygamous flowers. (From apa, 

 like to, and fir]\ls, an apple-tree ; a name anciently applied to the Medlar, or some 

 other tree resembling the Apple, which the Witch- Hazel does not.) 



1. H. Virginiea, L. Leaves obovate or oval, wavy-toothed, somewhat 

 downy when young. —Damp woods: blossoming late in autumn, when the 

 leaves are falling, and maturing its seeds the next summer. 



2. FOTHERGILLA, L. f. Fothergilla. 



Flowers in a terminal catkin-like spike, mostly perfect. Calyx bell-shaped, 

 the summit truncate, slightly 5-7-toothed. Petals none. Stamens about 24, 

 borne on the margin of the calyx in one row, all alike : filaments very long, 

 thickened at the top (white). Styles 2, slender. Pod cohering with the base 

 of the calyx, 2-lobed, 2-celled, with a single bony seed in each ceil. — A low 

 shrub ; the oval or obovate leaves smooth, or hoary underneath, toothed at the 

 summit ; the flowers appearing rather before the leaves, each partly covered by 

 a scale-like bract. (Dedicated to the distinguished Dr. John Fotheryill.) 



1. P. alnifblia. L. f. — Low grounds, Virginia and southward. April, 

 May. 



