U4 



"SVEEDS AXD USEFUL PLA^"TS. 



one wliich, by its size, and frequent occurrence in wet meadows is likely 

 to attract the notice of the farmer. It is a mere weed, but not difficult 

 to get rid of, bv draining and proper attention. The Heuchera Ameri- 

 cana, L., or Alum-root — a plant belougiog to this order, is frequent 

 along fence-rows and borders of rich woodlands. — and its astringent 

 root has been of some notoriety as an Indian remedy for cancerous sores : 

 but it is scarcely of sufficient prominence, on the farm, to command the 

 attention of the Agriculturist. 



Order XXXTI. HAMAMELA'CE^E. (Witch-hazel Fa-MIly.) 



Slirubs or trees vrith alternate, simple leaves, deciduous stipvles and polygamous or mo- 

 naecious^wers in heads or spikes. Calyz coliering with tJie base of the orarr. Pistils 

 2, united below. Fruit a 2-beaked 2-celled woody pod, opening at the sumnr;: with one 

 or two bony seeds Lu each cell ; enibryo large in a sparing albumen ; pdals sometimes 

 wahting. 



• Flowers with calyx and corolla, and a single ovule suspended from the 

 summit of each cell. 



1. HA^IA^^IE'LIS, L. Witch-hazel. 



[Greek, Hama, like to, and Melis, an apple tree : application not obvious.] 



Flowers in little axillary clusters, with an involucre of 3 scale-like leaf- 

 lets ; calyx 4-parted, with 2-3 bracilets at base. Petals 4, long and 

 linear. Stamens 8, very short ; the 4 alternate with the petals having 

 anthers, the others imperfect and scale-like. Capsule opening loculicid- 

 ally from the top ; the outer coat separating from the inner, which en- 

 closes the large and bony seed in each cell, but soon bursts elastically 

 into two pieces. 



1, H. Virgin'ica, L. Leaves obovate or oval, sinuate-dentate, sub- 

 cordate at base, stellately pubescent. 

 YiRGixiAX Hamamelis. Witch-hazel. 



stem 6-12 feet high, with straggling tiexuose branches. Leaves 2-6 inches long 5 

 peiioZ<;5 about half an inch in length. Floivars greenish-j-ellow, clustered in threes, on a 

 common peduncle near half an inch long ; petnU narrow, linear, a little crisped, about ^ 

 of an inch in length. Seeds black and shining. 



Damp woods. Fl. October, the fruit perfecting ta the September following. 



Obs. This shrub is worthy of cultivation by the curious, on account of 

 the singular lateness of its flowers, which appear at the time when most 

 trees are shedding their leaves. The flowers are often seen as late ag 

 ]S"ovember, when the leaves have all fallen. It is said to grow readily 

 in a moist situation. The twigs of the Witch-hazel were used in the days 

 of superstition and witchcraft as divining rods, to indicate the position 

 of hidden springs of water or deposits of precious ores, — a belief in their 

 efficacy is not even now wholly extinct. * 



Flowers naked, with barely the rudnnents of a calyx, and no corolla^ 

 crowded in catkin-like heads, Oiules several or many in each cell. 



