INDIGENOUS TREES AND SHRUBS. 11 



tributaries; is common in nearly all the woodland counties; but the tree is 

 fast going. In some particulars it resembles the White Elm, but is easily 

 distinguished by its peculiar color and clefts of bark. The lower branches 

 have corky excrescences; young branchlets downy-haired. The bud-scales 

 are fringed with hairs. The leaves have straighter veins than those of 

 the White. Flowers are clustered; two to four together, the stalk of each 

 particular flower in the cluster being arranged along the sides of a general 

 peduncle (flower-stalk). The winged fruit is elliptical and the margin deep- 

 ly fringed. This elm is deserving of special attention. 



TIUACE/E. LINDEN FAHILY. 



Tilia Americana is known asBasswood, Linden, Lime Tree, Whitewood. 

 Naturally abundant in the big woods, but largely consumed now; common 

 throughout the native woodlands of the state, "extending north to Bass- 

 wood Lake on the international boundary," says Winchell. "Its northern 

 limit is just south of Thunder Bay, from which it nearly follows the inter- 

 national line to the Lake of the Woods, and thence extends nearly to Lake 

 Winnipeg and northwest to Fort Ellice." Being found so far north is 

 proof of the hardiness and adaptability to planting in any part of the state. 

 Its best condition obtains in loose, deep and fertile soil, growing there 

 from 70 to 80 feet high and 3 to 4 feet in diameter. It generally has. a 

 straight and uniform trunk and a broad, tufted summit. No tree is better 

 balanced nor more beautiful. 



When but a few years old the leaves are remarkably large, sometimes 

 growing fourteen to fifteen inches long and a foot wide, suspended down a 

 petiole (footstalk) about three Inches long. On mature trees they are 

 smaller. They are attached alternate, nearly round, heart-shaped at the 

 base. Both sides are quite smooth. The flowers have numerous stamens 

 or fertilizing organs. "Their filaments," says Gray, "cohering in five 

 clusters, sometimes with a petal-like body in each cluster; others two-celled 

 pistil with a five-celled ovary, having two ovals in each cell, in fruit be- 

 coming rather woody globular, one-seeded little nut. * * * Dull, 

 cream-colored, honey-bearing flowers formed in early summer on a nodding 

 axillary peduncle (flower-stalk) which is united to a long and narrow leaf- 

 like bract." Blossoms in June. 



The seeds are round, like a pea, grayish, ripening in October. When 

 ready to fall they can be beaten down with a pole. After drying a few 

 days, they should be planted in rich soil. They can also be propagated 

 from shoots that spring up around the trunks of the forest tree, by shovel- 

 ing soil upon them, and in two years they are well rooted. Layering is a 

 successful method. 



The wood is white and tender, clean and beautiful when polished and 

 varnished. It is used for boxes, carriage bodies, chair-seats, and is grow- 

 ing popular even for floors. 



