244 CHINESE ECONOMIC TEEES 



About 20 species are recognized, all in the temperate northern 

 hemisphere. About 20 species occur in China. Linden or Basswood is 

 the common English name. 



The wood is light in weight, used in interior finish and for wooden- 

 ware, and the fibrous inner bark is fashioned into nets, cords and mats, 

 and in Russia, Sweden and China it is woven into shoes and sandals. 



Tilia tuan Szyszylowicz. 



Tree 10-16 m. tall. Young branchlets glabrous or nearly glabrous. 

 Leaves thin, ovate, 5-13 cm. long with oblique and slightly cordate 

 base, long pointed at the apex, minutely and indistinctly dentate on the 

 upper margin and nearly entire at the base; upper surface nearly 

 smooth, lower surface covered with a white, stellate tomentum, and 

 with axillary tufts of hair; petioles up to 6 cm. long, tomentose. In- 

 florescence cymose, 10-30 flowered. Floral bract 8-13 cm. long, glabrous 

 above except along the veins, tomentose below. Petals ovate-lanceolate, 

 ovary globose, tomentose. 



Western and Central China. 



The inner bark of this species is used to make sandals worn by the 

 mountaineers. 



Tilia oliver i Szyszylowicz. 



Tree to 25 m. tall, with somewhat drooping branches. Young 

 branchlets shiny reddish-brown and glabrous. Winter buds large. Leaves 

 short acuminate, ovate, cordate or truncate at the base, distinctly sinuate 

 dentate with short glandular teeth, or sometimes the dentation obscure, 

 dark green and glabrous above, covered by a dense, close, white, stellate 

 tomentum beneath, 5-12 cm. long. Inflorescence cymose, pendulous, 

 many flowered, bracts sessile. Fruit globose or obovoid, obscurely ribbed, 

 tuberculate, tomentose and shortly apiculate. 



Central China. A very ornamental species. 



Tilia mongolica Maximowicz. 



Tree to 10 m. tall. Branchlets glabrous, reddish. Leaves coarsely 

 serrate and usually 3 lobed, dark shiny green above, glaucous and with 

 axillary tufts of simple hairs beneath, 4-5 cm. long. 



Mongolia to Chihli. 



The small birch-like leaves are very distinctive. 



