510 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



FAMILY XXXVI. THE LINDEN FAMILY. TILIA'CEM. Jussieu. 



More than thirty genera belong to this family, including as 

 many as two hundred species, of which five sixths are found 

 within the tropics. More than twenty of the genera contain 

 trees or large shrubs, but a great portion of the species are un- 

 important plants with pretty, sometimes beautiful, pink or white 

 flowers. All have a mucilaginous, wholesome juice ; the berries 

 of some are eatable ; all are remarkable for the toughness of the 

 fibres of the inner bark. The wood is generally very light and 

 soft, but applicable to important uses. They have alternate 

 leaves with deciduous stipules; and axillary flowers with a 

 calyx of 4 or 5 sepals, a corolla of 4 or 5 petals, with glands or 

 scales at base, and numerous distinct stamens ; the ovary of 2 

 to 10 united seed-vessels, with styles united and stigmas dis- 

 tinct. The fruit is dry, or, very rarely, like a drupe, or berry, 

 with usually several cells, sometimes a single cell, containing 

 one or more seeds. 



The only genus of this family belonging to Massachusetts is 



THE LINDEN OR LIME TREE. TI'LIA. L. 



This includes nine or ten species of trees with heart-shaped 

 leaves, and a tough, fibrous bark, with cymose flowers, the 

 stalk of which is attached to a large, colored, leaf-like bract. 

 The flowers have 5 sepals, 5 petals, and numerous stamens in 5 

 parcels, the central one in each parcel usually transformed into a 

 petal-like scale. The ovary is sessile, globose, villous, 5-celled ; 

 the cells with 2 ovules. The fruit is coriaceous, paper-like, or 

 woody, nearly round, 1-cellcd, 1- or 2-seeded. 



The species are found in the temperate regions of America, 

 Europe and contiguous Asia ; and, for the beauty of the broad, 

 umbrageous head, the toughness and pliability of the fibres of 

 the inner bark, the adaptedness of the soft wood to the uses of 

 the sculptor, and the sweet fragrance of the flowers, these trees 

 have long been familiar favorites with the inhabitants of those 

 regions. 



