1678 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



green, with scattered stellate pubescence. The branchlets, buds, and flowers are 

 identical with those of T. tomentosa. 



This tree appears to be a sport of T. tomentosa of unknown origin. Schneider 

 considers it to be a native of southern Hungary and the Balkan States ; and no 

 doubt, specimens of silver limes with longer petioles than usual occur in that region, 

 but no one, so far as I am aware, has ever seen a tree in the wild state with the 

 pendulous habit and the peculiar fruits of T. petiolaris, Hooker. V. Engler admits 

 that it is only known in cultivation. 



The history of this tree is obscure ; but it seems to have been first accurately 

 distinguished by Kirchner, who, in 1864, described it as T. tomentosa, var. petiolaris, 

 and erroneously identified it with T. petiolaris, De Candolle. 1 Hooker, in Bot. Mag. 

 * 737 (1884), following Kirchner, adopted De Candolle's name; but, though this 

 was incorrect, it is convenient to retain the name as T. petiolaris, Hooker. This 

 peculiar tree was not known in Loudon's time ; but must have been introduced 

 from the Continent soon afterwards, as the fine specimen in the Cambridge Botanic 

 Garden was probably planted 4 in 1842. Before 1864 it was known in cultivation as 

 T. americana pendula 8 ; and Koch in 1 869 considered it to be of American origin. 



1. Tilia orbicularis, Carriere, 4 which originated in Simon- Louis' nursery at 

 Plantieres, is evidently a seedling of T. petiolaris, from which it differs mainly in 

 being less pubescent. The leaves, which are dark glossy green above and dull grey 

 beneath, also differ from those of T. petiolaris in the shorter petioles, which are, 

 however, slender as in that species. The serrations are also slightly sharper and 

 occasionally more irregular. Flowers as in T. petiolaris, but with the bract larger 

 and nearly glabrescent, and the sepals and pedicels covered with a less dense and 

 greyish tomentum. Fruit strictly globose, not depressed at the summit, and showing 

 no furrows, but having the same warty surface as that of T. petiolaris. 



This tree, which is not nearly so pendulous in habit as T. petiolaris, is reputed, 

 on account of the dark glossy green of the upper surface of the leaves, to be a hybrid 

 between T. petiolaris and T. euchlora ; but, in the present state of our knowledge of 

 hybrids, it is judicious to say nothing about its parentage until experimental sowings 

 have been made on a large scale of the seed of T. petiolaris? 



Two small trees of T. orbicularis, obtained from Plantieres in 1900, are thriving 

 at Kew, one of which has already produced flowers and fruit. They retain their 

 foliage late in the season. (A. H.) 



1 T. petiolaris, De Candolle, was founded in 1826 on a branch without flowers or fruit, now preserved in the Geneva 

 Herbarium, which was taken from a tree cultivated in the Imperial Botanic Garden at Odessa ; but Lange, in Flora, i. 233 

 (1827), who had seen this tree, states that it was identical in every respect with the ordinary form of T. argentea cultivated at 

 Paris ; and a drawing at Kew of De Candolle's specimen confirms Lange's opinion. The name T. petiolaris, De Candolle, 

 thus disappears, being a mere synonym of T. tomentosa. 



2 The oldest herbarium specimen, which I have seen, is one in fruit from a tree growing in a street at Nancy, collected 

 by Billot in 1861. According to Bunbury, Arb. Notes, 67 (1889), the fine tree at Barton was planted by his father ; but no 

 exact date can be now ascertained. 3 cf. Rehder, in Mitt. Pent. Dettd. Ges. 1904, p. 209. 



4 Ex Beissner, in Mitt. Deut. Dend. Ges., 1898, pp. 86 and 88. It appears, however, to have been first accurately 

 described by Jouin in La Semaine Horticole, 1899, P- 335- 



* A branch from a seedling of T. petiolaris, raised in the Arnold Arboretum and sent to me by Prof. Sargent in 1 9 10, 

 bears foliage identical with that of the parent. Sargent, Bull. Pop. Inform. No. 30 (1912), and in Card. Chron. lii. 88 (1912), 

 . states, however, that plants raised in the Arnold Arboretum from the seeds of a tree of T. petiolaris, which was growing near 

 T. americana, the two flowering at the same time, are identical with trees of T. spectabilis. See p. 1686. 



