8 9 



THE WITCH-HAZELS 



(Tlamatnelis) . 



If they flowered when gardens are at the 

 full tide of summer beauty the Witch 

 Hazels might pass well-nigh unnoticed, 

 but, blooming in mid - winter when 

 flowers are few and gardens at their 

 dullest, they are of value and their beau- 

 ty better appreciated. To come across 

 one of these little shrubs opening its 

 flowers, undaunted by frost and snow, 

 never fails to rouse a thrill of pleasure, 

 coming, as one French writer has aptly 



put it, 



"like Noah's olive-branch after 



many days of deluge." As shrubs of small 

 growth they should be placed close to 

 walks, the peculiar form and beauty of 

 their flowers being best seen near at 

 hand. The Japanese kinds form shape- 

 ly little trees of neat outline but slow 

 growth,even theTreeWitchHazel (Ha- 

 mamelis arbored) rarely rising above 8 

 or 10 feet; they are therefore quite in 

 place grouped in the angle of a lawn or 

 the fore-front of the shrubbery. The 

 effect of the narrow-petalled flowers 

 being a little "thin" it is always a gain 

 to group several plants together, and so 

 massed, when seen in bright sunlight 

 and thrown into relief by a background 

 of dark foliage or glittering snow, they 

 are conspicuous with a beautyunlike any 

 other of our hardy shrubs. Severe frost 

 at times destroys the open flowers, but 

 the buds are uninjured so that the dis- 

 play is renewed with milder weather 

 and lasts in all through several weeks. 

 The older American kind is not so 

 good, being a little untidy in growth 

 and less striking in flower, but bloom- 

 ing when it does in late autumn and 



early winter all flowering shrubs have 

 their value. Small pot-grown plants of 

 the showy Japan kinds when flowered 

 under glass are pretty in the conserva- 

 tory, lasting in beauty for a long while 

 and brought to perfection without heat; 

 cut branches, too, will freely open their 

 buds indoors, but the shrubs are too 

 slow in growth to allow of much cut- 

 ting. They are not at all particular as 

 to soil and aspect, but do best in a good 

 free loam and where the winter sun can 

 light up their flower-clusters. 



The new Chinese kind [H. mollis) 

 discovered by Dr. Henry in 1887 is as 

 yet hardly known in gardens though to 

 all appearance a plant of value, being 

 quite hardy, of good growth, and the 

 brightest of all in colour. The four 

 species of Hamamelis are classed by 

 themselves in a small order of rather 

 uncertain rank, some botanists placing 

 it near the Ivy and Dogwood groups, 

 and others nearer the Saxifragas. The 

 four following kinds are now in culti- 

 vation : — 



The Tree Witch-Hazel {Hamamelis ar- 

 bored). — The largest and best of the group, 

 forming a neat erect shrub with a much- 

 branched head of pale yellowish shoots, and a 

 neat outline. It is the earliest to flower, its buds 

 opening in succession from the middle of Janu- 

 ary in stemless clusters of small crimson tubes 

 each bearing four long golden petals, very 

 narrow and quaintly crisped and twisted but 

 of glowing effect under strong sunlight. The 

 leaves, coming later, are oval, upon short stalks, 

 rather rough in texture and strangely ribbed, 

 the veins being deeply sunk on the upper and 

 standing out on the under surface of the leaf ; 

 in the autumn they take on pretty tints of red 

 and yellow. The plant does not seed in our 

 gardens, but in Japan is said to bear small nut- 

 like fruits covered with a fine down such as is 

 often found upon the growing shoots. It is 



