392 ORDER TILIACE.E, OR LINDEN TRIBE. 



herbaceous plants, with handsome flowers, which abound within 

 the tropics ; some species, however, are lofty trees ; and these, 

 contrary to the general rule, are natives of temperate regions. 

 Three species of Linden or Lime-tree are found in Britain ; of 

 which the largest and best known was probably not originally a 

 native of this country. This last sometimes grows to a great 

 size ; and its wood, being light, soft, smooth, close-grained, and 

 not liable to be worm-eaten, is valued by carvers for ornamental 

 works, and also forms one of the best kinds of charcoal for the 

 manufacture of gunpowder. Its flowers are very fragrant, and 

 are a favourite resort of bees, who obtain from them not only 

 honey but a large supply of pollen, which they store up for the 

 nourishment of their young ; and if a hive of bees is at no great 

 distance from a grove of limes, it may be known when these are 

 in flower, by the large number of bees that will return laden 

 with little pellets of the bright yellow pollen which these blos- 

 soms furnish. There are perhaps no trees which form so beau- 

 tiful an avenue, the peculiar mode in which the branches arise 

 from the stem and meet above, giving them very much the aspect 

 of the Gothic columns and arches of a cathedral ; and when the 

 lover of Nature walks beneath their luxuriant foliage, " at dewy 

 eve distilling odours," he feels them to constitute a fit temple 

 for the worship of Nature's God. The characters by which this 

 order is distinguished are such as to show its near alliance with 

 the Malvaceae. The calyx consists of four or five valvular sepals ; 

 and the corolla of an equal number of petals, which are rarely 

 wanting. The stamens are indefinite in number, and net united 

 into a tube ; and the anthers are two-celled, bursting longitudi- 

 nally. The pistil is formed of four to ten united carpels, having 

 a single style, and stigmata equal in number to the carpels, as in 

 the Bromaceae. The partitions are permanent, so as to divide 

 the fruit into cells. They are at once known from the Mal- 

 vaceae and two succeeding orders, by the non-adhesion of the 

 stamens ; and from the Malvaceae and Bombaceae by their two- 

 celled anthers. In their general properties, the Tiliaceae resem- 

 ble the Malvaceae ; they are quite harmless, and contain a con- 

 siderable quantity of mucilage. The sap of the Lime abounds 



