WLittk ^aar-el, 
Qaillrtindis i3il‘Qtnicincl. Natural Order: Ilarnamelacece—Witch Hazel Family. 
m 
y AN AD A and various parts of the United States produce this 
I large shrub about as commonly as Virginia, from which it 
derives its distinctive qualification; its name, the Greek appel¬ 
lative oi the medlar, has been misapplied by a mistake which 
it is now hard to rectify. The small branches were formerly 
used to discover veins of water and precious metals; and 
F there are those who have inherited sufficient superstition to still have 
faith in their efficiency. We have seen wells said to have been so 
^ located, but how an unconscious piece of hazel should be more wise 
than man, is more than can be divined. A recent theory is, that it 
^ may be through some law of electricity not yet understood. The mode 
of procedure is in this manner: A branch that is forked is held, one 
yjp branch in each hand, the main end pointing upward; the moment that 
it passes over water, it turns around and points to the earth. It is said, 
however, not to turn in the hands of everyone. 
HAVE led a life too stirring for those vague beliefs 
That superstition builds in solitude. —Miss Landon. 
nUR witches are no longer old 
^ And wrinkled beldames, Satan-sold, 
But young and gay and laughing creatures. 
With the heart’s sunshine on their features; 
Their sorcery — the light which dances 
When the raised lid unvails its glances, 
And the low-breathed and gentle tone 
Faintly responding unto ours, 
Soft, dreamlike as a fairy’s moan, 
Above its nightly closing flowers. 
YXfHAI are these, so wither’d and so wild in their attire, 
That look not like the inhabitants o’ the earth, 
And yet are on ’t? -Shakespeare. 
— Whittier. 
|3b T the witch-hazel’s flower 
Of golden velvet, opening when the storm 
Comes on the wings of winter to deform, [hour. 
Charms with contrasting bloom while ruin rules the 
— Aljred B. Street. 
| KNOW —whereon the sirens sit — 
An island in a dark-green sea. 
Oft at the wind’s own will past it 
I sail my boat delightedly. 
— James Maurice Thompson. 
