Stem: A
tall, crooked shrub. Leaves: Broadly oval, thick, wavy-toothed,
mostly fallen at flowering time. Fruit: Woody capsules maturing
the next season and remaining with flowers of the succeeding year
(Hama = together with; mela = fruit).
Preferred Habitat - Moist woods or thickets near streams.
Flowering Season - August-December.
Distribution - Nova Scotia and Minnesota, southward to the Gulf
States.
To find a stray. apple blossom among the fruit in autumn, or an
occasional violet deceived by caressing Indian Summer into
thinking another spring has come, surprises no one; but when the
witch-hazel bursts into bloom for the first time in November, as
if it were April, its leafless twigs conspicuous in the gray
woods with their clusters of spidery pale yellow flowers, we
cannot but wonder with Edward Rowland Sill:
"Has time grown sleepy at his post
And let the exiled Summer back?
Or is it her regretful ghost,
Or witchcraft of the almanac?"
Not to the blue gentian but to the witch-hazel should Bryant have
addressed at least the first stanza of his familiar lines (See
Fringed Gentian).
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