THE LINDEN FAMILY. t^^^ 



WHITE BASSWOOD. BEE TREE, {r/^/^ CI'.) 



Tilea hcteruphylla. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Linden. Roumied with s,o--]oJeet. Florida und Alnhattta J **'tfy J nl)- 



tapering suvitnit. northward to Pennsylvania^ 



Bark: dark brown; ridged vertically and separating into thin scales. L^ajrs: 

 four to five feet long; slender i)etioled; rounded in outline, with abruptly pointed 

 apex and squared or cordate base, one-suled ; sharply and irregularly serrate; 

 dark green; smooth and glossy above at maturity, silvery j)ubcscent underneath, 

 especially in the angles of the light coloured ribs. Flmvcrs : cream coloured; 

 fragrant; growing in cymes on long, slender peduncles that hang from a broad, 

 membranaceous bract. Sepals: five, softly pubescent. J'ttals : five, narrow. 

 Staiuens : numerous and adhering in clusters to the i)etal scales or with each other 

 in five sets. Fruit : greenish grey ; round and resembling peas, the style and 

 five-toothed stigma projecting from the top. 



Perhaps the linden is more famed among the bee commimity than any 

 other tree of our silva. Most assiduously they seek its fragrant, cream- 

 coloured blossoms to gather nectar and then produce a honey which is 

 highly regarded in Europe as well as in this country. Truly also it is a 

 beautiful tree of high bred, refined expression. The seedlings, and by this 

 tertn is meant those that have not yet reached a height of three feet, are un- 

 usually pretty, their leaves showing from the first little cotyledons that ap- 

 pear in several different outlines before settling down to their approved form. 

 This species of Tilia although rare through northern forests is much 

 chosen for planting and can readily be told from other American species 

 by the silvery down on the undersides of its leaves. 



The wood of the species just described is light brown, rather weak, but 

 often used for similar purposes to those of the tulip-tree; and when the 

 supply of red cedar shall have been exhausted, it may be chosen to take its 

 place in supplying material for lead-pencils. A mucilaginous substance also 

 is contained in the bark which natives in certain parts of the south make 

 into a liniment for curing scalds and burn^. 



T. Amer/cdna, American linden, basswood or white wood, grows along 

 river bottoms and in rich, moist woods from Georgia and Texas northward, 

 and while bearing leaves almost identical in outline with those of the while 

 basswood, are smaller and quite without the silvery-white, underlying 

 pubescence which characterises the other. 



T. pubcscens, southern basswood, at most about fifty feet high, is very 

 similar to Tilia Americana, and known from it by its smaller leaves which 

 have often on both sides a dense pubescence while again they become almost 

 glabrous above. The shoots of the southern basswood also are coated 

 with woolly pubescence, at least during their early stages. Its very fra- 

 grant flowers are well known to the bees and its bark is used medicinally. 



