16 BULLETIN OF WISCONSIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. VOL. 4, NOS. 1-2. 
HAMAMKLTS VIRGINIANA L. WITCH-HAZEL. 
This shrub is a common inhabitant of our woods, and is 
remarkable from the fact that late in the fall the flowers appear 
together with the mature seeds of the previous year. It begins 
its flowering season later than any of our plants, and, as a rule, 
after the leaves have fallen, although the first flowers on some 
specimens may appear at the end of September when the leaves 
are still present. It has been noticed in blossom from Septem- 
ber 26 on. The latest flowers are usually destroyed by the advent 
of cold weather around the beginning of November. 
Meehan (3) has given a description of the flowers with their 
long, slender, yellow petals. They are very numerous, and emit 
a peculiar resinous odor. The shape of the flower represents a 
small cup formed by the 4 rigid sepals. Alternating with these 
the 4 ribbon-shaped petals protrude from the cup, and the 
4 stamens alternating with the petals are very short. The wall 
of the anther-cell (valve) splits open below, and turns upw r ard and 
somewhat inward thereby exposing the pollen. Inside of the 
stamens and alternating w r ith them are the 4 oblong staminodia, 
scale-like organs bending outward towards the petals, and secret- 
ing fine drops of nectar on their upper surface, especially near the 
apex. The two styles with their red-tipped stigmas are directed 
outward. 
Meehan states that the flower is homogamous, and that the 
stigma becomes receptive on the second day at the same time that 
the anthers begin to dehisce. In the specimens examined in our 
region the stigma was receptive already on the first day, and 
remained so for a day or two 1 after dehiscence had taken place. 
We are therefore dealing with proterogyny. 
Two anthers situated diagonally opposite to each other are 
only 2 mm. apart, but they do not touch the stigma, and con- 
sequently spontaneous self-pollination can hardly occur in this 
manner. The only way it can take place is by the falling of pollen 
on the stigma of flowers in a vertical position. Meehan did not 
witness any insect visits, and the question was left open whether 
the pollen was transported from flower to flower through insects 
(entomophilous) or through currents of air (anemophilous). The 
structure of the flower seems to me to leave no doubt as to its 
entomophilous character. The conspicuousness of the enormously 
3. Thomas Meehan. Contributions to the Life Histories of Plants. 
No. V, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc., Phil., 1890, pp. 273-274. Cited by Loew in 
JCnuth's Handbuch d. Bluetenbiolog-ie III, Part 1, pp. 333-334. 
