Witch Hazel
Botanical: Hamamelis Virginiana (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Hamamelidaceae
Description
Constituents
Medicinal Action and Uses
Dosage
---Synonyms---Spotted Alder. Winterbloom. Snapping Hazelnut.
---Parts Used---Bark, dried; leaves, fresh and dried.
---Habitat---The Eastern United States and Canada.


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---Description---The name Hamamelis was adopted from a Greek word to indicate its resemblance to an apple-tree.
This shrub, long known in cultivation, consists of several crooked branching trunks from one root, 4 to 6 inches in diameter, 10 to 12 feet in height, with a smooth grey bark, leaves 3 to 5 inches long and about 3 inches wide, on short petioles, alternate, oval or obovate, acuminate, obliquely subcordate at the base, the margin crenate, dentate, scabrous, with raised spots underneath, pinnately veined and having stellate hairs. The leaves drop off in autumn, then the yellow flowers appear, very late in September and in October, in clusters from the joints, followed by black nuts, containing white seeds which are oily and edible. In Britain, the nut does not bear seeds, but in America, they are produced abundantly, but often do not ripen till the following summer. The seeds are ejected violently when ripe, hence the name Snapping Hazelnut. The leaves are inodorous, with an astringent and bitterish aromatic taste. The twigs are flexible and rough, colour externally, yellowish-brown to purple, wood greeny white, pith small. The bark as found in commerce is usually in quilled pieces 1/16 inch thick, 2 to 8 inches long, with silvery grey, scaly cork; longitudinally striated; fracture fibrous and laminated; taste and odour slight.