Tilia 1687 



3. Tilia viridis, Simonkai, in Math. Term. KoezL xxii. 320 (1888). 



In addition to the usual form of T. spectabilis described above, there appears to 

 be another hybrid of the same parentage, which is represented at Kew by a tree 

 about 25 ft. high, obtained under the name T. spectabilis from Spath in 1899. It is 

 closer to T. tomentosa, as the buds, branchlets, and upper surface of the leaves are 

 covered with a scattered stellate pubescence, which is denser on the under surface of 

 the leaves than in ordinary T. spectabilis. This tree closely resembles, if it is not 

 identical with, a specimen 1 taken from a tree cultivated at Baden in 1835, which was 

 identified by A. Braun with T. argentea, var. virescens, Spach, in Ann. Sci. Nat. 

 ii. 344 (1834). Spach's description was based on a tree in the Trianon, which was 

 said to have been raised from seeds of T. tomentosa ; and if this account is correct, 

 this tree would appear to have been the first cross observed between T. tomentosa 

 and T. americana. 



Distribution 



Tilia americana is widely spread, occurring in Canada from the valley of the 

 Assiniboine River and the southern shores of Lake Winnipeg eastward to northern 

 New Brunswick, and extending in the United States southwards to Virginia and 

 along the Appalachian mountains to Georgia and Alabama, and ranging westward 

 to Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian Territory, and eastern Texas. It grows in 

 rich often moist soil, and formerly occurred as pure forest. 2 It attains its largest 

 size in the alluvial lands of the lower Ohio river, where Ridgway records a tree 

 135 ft. in height and iy\ ft. in girth. 8 



According to Loudon, the American lime was cultivated 4 by Miller in 1752, but 

 had not been extensively distributed. It is very rare at the present time in cultiva- 

 tion, and the tree at White Knights, mentioned by Loudon as 60 ft. in height, is no 

 longer living. The only specimens which we have seen in England are small trees 

 at Kew, Eastnor Castle, and Liphook. (A. H.) 



Timber 



The wood of the American limes is very similar in character to that of the 

 European species, and according to Sargent is largely used in the United States 

 under the name of whitewood for the manufacture of cheap furniture, carriage 

 panels, and woodenware. He states that, though one of the woods most largely used 

 for making pulp, the quick decomposition of the sap makes it unfit for white paper. 

 It is imported to some extent into Europe under the name of basswood, and has 



1 This specimen is considered by Bayer, in Verhand. Zoo!. Bot. Ges. Witn, xii. 50 (1862), to be a hybrid between 7*. 

 tomentosa and T. americana, which he calls T. argenlea-nigra. V. Engler (op. cit. 152) considers it to be T. cordata x 

 T. tomentosa, but it shows no trace of T. cordata parentage. 



2 In U.S. Forest Service, Circular 63 (1907), which gives an account of this species, it is said to do well when planted 

 in pure stands, and to be the most prolific of American trees in shoots from the stumps. 



3 Sargent, Bull. Pop. Inform. No. 30 (1912), and in Card. Chron. lii. 87 (1912), says that it shows its greatest beauty 

 in the forests of New Brunswick, northern New England, and the valley of the St. Lawrence. The leaves of planted trees in 

 eastern Massachusetts are, especially in dry summers, made brown by the red spider, which, however, is easily controlled by 

 spraying. 



4 In the London Catalogue of Trees, 1730, p. 81, the Carolina lime tree is mentioned as " Tilia, with leaf more longly 

 mucronate. Seeds sent from Carolina by Catesby in 1726, hardy, and may be propagated as other limes." 



