146 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



more vigorous shoots than the European species. It 

 prefers a deep and fertile soil, where the trunk grows 

 remarkably straight, and the branches form a handsome, 

 well-rounded summit. The flowers are borne on long 

 stalks, and are pendulous from the branches. The leaves 

 are large, heart-shaped, finely cut on the margin, and 

 terminated by a point at the extremity. The seeds, 

 which ripen in autumn, are like small peas, round and 

 greyish. 



The white lime (T. alba) is rare in the eastern states, 

 but common in Pennsylvania and the states south of it. 

 It is not a tree of the largest size, but its flowers are the 

 finest of our native sorts. The leaves are also very large, 

 deep green on the upper surface, and white below ; they 

 are more obliquely heart-shaped than those of the common 

 basswood. The young branches are covered with a 

 smooth silvery bark. This species is very common on 

 the Susquehannah river. 



The Downy lime tree. (T. pubescens.) The under 

 side of the leaves, and the fruits of this species, are, as its 

 name denotes, covered with a short down. Its flowers 

 are nearly white ; the serratures of the leaves wider 

 apart, and the base of the leaf obliquely truncated. It is 

 a handsome large tree, a native of Florida, though hardy 

 enough, as experience proves, to bear our northern 

 winters. 



The European lime (T. Europcea) is distinguished 

 from the American sorts, by its smaller and more 

 regularly cordate and rounded leaves. Unlike our 

 native species, the flowers are not furnished with inner 

 scale-like petals. The foliage is rather deeper in hue 

 than the native sorts, and the branches of the head rathei 



