UN1VEP 



FOREST TREES. 225 



seeded berry. Leaves have a sweetish taste, and are greedily 

 devoured by cattle. A small tree with rather firm wood. Dela- 

 ware and South to Florida, and westward to Louisiana. 



TILIA, Linn. Basswood, Linden. 



A genus of only about a half dozen species of deciduous 

 trees, inhabiting the temperate regions of Europe and America. 

 They are all handsome and valuable trees, with soft and white 

 wood. Leaves more or less heart-shaped ; often soft and downy. 

 Flowers with five spatulate, oblong petals, cream-color and in 

 small cymes or clusters, hanging on an axillary slender pedun- 

 cle, which is attached to a long, slender, and thin leaf-like 

 bract. Fruit a small globular nut, one-celled, and one or two- 

 seeded. The flowers are fragrant and yield a large quantity of 

 clear white delicate-flavored honey. We have but two indi- 

 genous species. 



Tilia Americana, Linn. American Basswood. Leaves four to 

 six inches broad, smooth, and green on both sides, obliquely 

 heart-shaped, sharply serrate. Bark and buds mucilaginous, 

 the inner bark used for making bass-mats, also for coarse cord- 

 age, and employed by nurserymen for tying in buds in the 

 propagation of fruit, and other trees and plants. To prepare 

 the bark for use it is stripped from the trees in spring, and 

 placed in water until the mucilaginous properties have been 

 dissolved, then taken out, and divided into thin layers. Wood 

 white, soft, and light, easily worked, and extensively used for 

 inside work of various kinds. A handsome large tree, sixty to 

 eighty feet high, with stem two to four feet in diameter. Com- 

 mon in moist soils, and along streams in all of the States east 

 of the Rocky Mountains, except in the extreme Southern. It is 

 found in the mountains of Georgia, and northward to Canada 

 and Lake Superior. 



Var. pubescens, Gray, has rather thin leaves, softly pubes- 

 cent underneath. A smaller tree than the species, and is found 

 in the swamps of North Carolina and Florida, near the coast. 



Var. macrophylla is a cultivated variety, with leaves much 

 larger than those of the species, and is a very handsome, rapid 

 growing tree. 



T. heteropliylla, Vent. White Basswood. Leaves large, often 

 eight inches broad, smooth and bright green above, silvery- 

 white, and downy underneath. A handsome tree, thirty to 

 fifty feet high, in the mountains of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, 

 and southward to North Carolina and Georgia. 



