LINDEN FAMILY 



Flowers. June, July. Perfect, regular, yellowish white, fragrant, 

 nectariferous, downy, borne in cymous clusters, pendulous, with the 

 flower-stalk attached for half its length to the vein of an oblong leaf- 

 like bract as long as itself. Flower buds densely coated with white 

 tomentum ; bract pointed at base. 



Calyx. Sepals five, lanceolate, valvate in bud, hypogynous, 

 downy within, hairy without. 



Corolla Petals five, imbricate in bud, hypogynous, alternate with 

 the sepals, spatulate-oblong, creamy white. 



Stamens. Numerous, polyadelphous ; filaments thread - like, 

 forked, collected into five clusters, with a petaloid scale placed op- 

 posite each petal ; anthers fixed by the middle, two-celled, extrorse. 



Pistil. Ovary superior, five-celled ; style erect ; stigma five- 

 lobed ; ovules two in each cell. 



Fruit. Nut-like, woody, tomentose, gray, ovoid or spherical, 

 clustered on a long stem, about the size of peas. October. 



Oh, who upon earth could ever cut down a Linden ? 



WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. 



The Linden is to be recommended as an ornamental tree 

 when a mass of foliage or a deep shade is desired ; no native 

 tree surpasses it in this respect. It is often planted on the 

 windward side of an orchard as a protection to young and 

 delicate trees. Its sturdy trunk stands like a pillar and the 

 branches divide and subdivide into numerous ramifications 

 on which the spray is small and thick. In summer this is 

 profusely clothed with large leaves and the result is a dense 

 head of abundant foliage. 



In winter a branch of the Linden may be recognized by its 

 deep red buds ; and the delicate leaves which burst from 

 them in the spring are a vivid green. Tennyson, who saw so 

 many of the hidden beauties of nature, did not fail to observe 

 this, as : 



A million emeralds break from the ruby-budded lime. 



The characteristics of the linden family are the same 

 whether the individual tree grows in America, Europe, or 

 Asia. The wood is light, soft, tough, and durable. This 

 makes it valuable in the manufacture of wooden-ware, cheap 

 furniture, bodies of carriages ; it is also especially adapted 



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