CHAPTER LI: THE LINDENS 



Family Tiliace^e 



Genus TILIA, Linn. 



Trees with mucilaginous sap, tough inner bark and broad, 

 dense head. IVood soft, white. Leaves alternate, deciduous, 

 broad, unsymmetrical, toothed, with veins branching strongly 

 on side next to petiole. Flowers creamy, fragrant, perfect, 

 clustered in cymes; borne on narrow leaf-like blades. Fruit 

 a dry, i to 2-seeded, globular nut. 



KEY TO SPECIES 



A. Leaves green on both sides. 



B. Linings of leaves nearly, or quite, smooth; fruit ovoid. 



{T. Americana) American linden 

 BB. Linings of leaves pubescent; fruit globose. 



(T. puhescens) downy basswood 

 A A. Leaves pale below; fruit globose. 



{T. heterophylla) white basswood 



The genus Tilia, comprising sixteen recognised species, 

 ranges widely in the Northern Hemisphere, omitting only central 

 Asia, the Himalaya district, and western America. It belongs 

 to a tropical family of which it is the only northern representative. 

 America has three Eastern species and one confined to Mexico. 

 Three other little-known forms have been recently admitted to 

 the rank of species by Professor Sargent. 



In classical Hterature and in folk lore the lindens have an 

 honoured place. In the south of Europe the impressionable 

 Greeks and Romans loved them for their beauty and their honey- 

 laden flowers. The hives of Hybla were sung by poets, and the 

 honey from the linden trees in the Lithuanian forests brought a 

 price three times as large as any other. Linnaeus had his name, 

 Carl Linne (afterward Carolus Linnaeus), from a favourite linden 

 tree that stood by his peasant father's house. 



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