512 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



with large, rich, thick masses of foliage, forming a beautiful 

 and striking object when seen from a distance. 



The bark is less rugged than that of almost any other tree, — 

 except the beech ; — on the young shoots, it is of a dark brown or 

 brownish-gray color, which gradually changes, on the larger, 

 to a light ash gray. The dark color of the young shoots, by 

 which it is readily distinguished from the European species, 

 has gained for it, in England and France, the common name of 

 the Black Lime Tree. 



The leaves are roundish in their outline, heart-shaped or 

 obliquely truncate at base, inequilateral, — the side nearest the 

 branch the largest, — acuminate, serrated with sharply acuminate 

 serratures, smooth on both surfaces, with minute tufts of russet 

 down at the axils of the nerves and veins beneath ; of a deep 

 green above, paler beneath, of soft, membranaceous texture, four 

 or five inches long and equally wide. In autumn, they turn to 

 a lemon yellow color. The leaf-stalk is half the length of the 

 leaf, and smooth. Flower-stalk as long as the leaf, smooth, 

 twice or thrice trichotomous at the end, rising from the upper 

 axil of the leaf, pendulous, attached, for half its length, to an 

 oblong, membranous, ribbon-like, pale-straw-colored bract, as 

 long as itself. The flowers, which are from 9 to 27, are yellow- 

 ish-white and very fragrant. The fruit is a woody or bony, 

 pubescent, roundish, gray nut, one fourth of an inch in diameter, 

 containing one seed. It flowers in July and August, and ripens 

 its fruit in October. 



The wood of the lime tree is soft and white, and of a fine, 

 close grain. It is softer and more tough and pliable than almost 

 any other wood, and is much used for the panels of carriages 

 and wagons. It is also used by cabinetmakers for the bottom 

 and sides of drawers, and for similar purposes. Where pine is 

 scarce, bass wood boards are used as a substitute, by house-car- 

 penters, for interior finishing. For certain purposes, it is prefer- 

 able to pine, on account of its very great toughness and pliability. 

 It is, therefore, much used by stair-builders for the curved ends 

 of stairs. It is well adapted to carving and turning. Small boxes 

 and wooden bowls are sometimes turned of it, and, on the Ohio 

 River, Michaux says it was formerly employed as the material 



