TILIACE^E. (LINDEN FAMILY.) 69 



3. II. TRIONUM, L. (BLADDER KETMIA.) Somewhat hairy ; upper leaves 

 deeply 3-parted, with lanceolate divisions, the middle one much the longest; 

 fruiting calyx inflated, monbranaceous, with bristly ribs, b-winged at the summit; 

 seeds rough. (5) Escaped from gardens into cultivated grounds. Corolla 

 pale greenish-yellow with a dark eye, ephemeral ; hence the name Floiver-of-an- 

 hour. (Adv. from Eu.) 



II. SYRIACUS, the SHRUBBY ALTH.EA of the old gardeners, is cultivated 

 about houses. 



ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS, the OKRA, and A. MANIHOT (the genus 

 characterized by the spathaceous calyx, bursting on one side and deciduous), 

 arc common in gardens southward. 



GOSSYPIUM HERBAGE UM, the COTTON-PLANT, is the most important plant of 

 this family. 



ORDER 24 TILJACE^E. (LINDEN FAMILY.) 



Trees (rarely herbs'), with the mucilaginous properties, Jibrous bark, and 

 valvate calyx, fyc. of the Mallow Family ; but the sepals deciduous, petals 

 imbricated in the bud, the stamens usually polyadelphous, and the antJ'.ers 

 2-celled ; represented in Northern regions only by the genus 



1. TIL.IA, L. LINDEN. BASSWOOD. 



Sepals 5. Petals 5, spatulate-oblong. Stamens numerous : filaments coher- 

 ing in 5 clusters with each other (in European species), or with the base of a 

 spatulate petal-like body placed opposite each of the real petals. Pistil with a 

 5-celled ovary and 2 half-anatropous ovules in each, a sjigle style, and a 5- 

 toothcd stigma. Fruit a sort of woody globular nut, becoming 1-cclled and 1 - 

 2-seeded. Embryo with a taper radicle, and a pair of leaf-like somewhat heart- 

 shaped and lobed cotyledons, which are a little folded. Fine trees, with soft 

 and white wood, more or less heart-shaped and serrate leaves, oblique and often 

 truncate at the base, deciduous stipules, and small cymes of flowers, hanging on 

 an axillary peduncle which is united to a leaf-like bract. Flowers cream-color, 

 honey-bearing, fragrant. (The classical name of the genus.) 



1. 1*. Americana, L. (BASSWOOD.) Leaves green and glabrous or 

 nearly so, thickish. Rich woods. May, June. This familiar tree is rarely 

 called Lime-tree, oftener White-wood, commonly Bassu-ood; the name (now obso- 

 lete in England) alluding to the use of the inner bark for mats and cordage. 



Var. piil>esceilS. Leaves softly pubescent underneath, often thin. (T. 

 pubescens, Ait. T. laxiflora, Michx.) Common from Maryland southward 

 and westward. 



2. T. hcteropliylla, Vent. (WHITE BASSWOOD.) Leaves smooth 

 and bright green above, silvery -whitened with a fine down underneath. (T. 

 alba, Michx.) Mountains of Penn. to Kentucky and southward. Leave? 

 larger than in No. 1, often 8' broad. 



T. EDROP^A, the EUROPEAN LINDEN, which is planted in and near our 

 cities as an ornamental tree, is at once distinguished from any native species by 



