HISTORY OF THE LINDEN AND ASH 173 



s ates. Very infrequently are these trees called limes in this 

 country although the latter name is perhaps the one most com- 

 monly applied to them in Europe, where it is derived apparently 

 as an altered form of the old English lind. 



Some of the species grow to a great size, Ray mentioning a 

 European tree that was 48 feet in circumference, although this 

 seems an unusual size. The famous lime tree that gave the town 

 of Neuenstadt in Wiirttemberg the appellation of ''Neuenstadt 

 an der grossen Linden" was 9 feet in diameter. Many of our 

 American streets are lined with linden trees, often the European 

 form, and most of the larger eastern cities have a Linden Avenue. 

 Perhaps the two most famous avenues of lindens, however are 

 those at Trinity College, Cambridge, and '^Unter den Linden" 

 in Berlin. In the more remote regions where wood carving is 

 not a lost art linden wood is very largely used for this handi- 

 craft, and in backward countries like much of Russia the bast or 

 inner bark of the linden is used in the manufacture of cords, 

 fish nets and similar articles. Bast mats made of this material 

 are a regular article of commerce and are largely imported from 

 Russia. 



The generalized range of the existing species and the known 

 fossil occurrences of the lindens are shown on the accompanying 

 sketch map. The number of fossil species is inconsiderable 

 comprising not more than thirty different forms, which is really 

 a small number when one reflects on the countless centuries that 

 these trees have been represented in the forests of past geological 

 times, and the vast areas that they have ranged over during those 

 ages. As far as is known at the present time none have been 

 found in deposits of Cretaceous age and the linden line is there- 

 fore less ancient than that of the majority of our forest trees, 

 unless possibly the unknown expanse of Asia has Cretaceous 

 lindens hidden somewhere in its bosom. 



The oldest known lindens are found in the Eocene, or early 

 Tertiary. In the rocks of this age four or five different species 

 have been discovered and while this number is small the locali- 

 ties where they are found point rather unmistakabl}^ to the 

 region where the linden stock probably originated. None occur 

 south of latitude 40° and two come from north of latitude 60°. 



