THE LINDENS 71 



The flight of basswood seeds on their wing-hke blades 

 goes on throughout the winter. This alone would account 

 for the fact that basswoods greatly outnumbered all other 

 trees in the virgin forests of the Ohio Valley. The seeds 

 are not the tree's sole dependence. Suckers grow up 

 about the stump of a tree the lumberman has taken, or the 

 lightning has stricken. Any twig is likely to strike root, 

 and any cutting made from a root as well. 



The finest specimen I know grew from a walking-stick 

 cut in the woods and thrust into the ground, by a mere 

 chance, when the rambler reached home. It is the roof 

 tree of a mansion, tall enough to waft its fragrance into the 

 third-story windows, and to reach high above the chimney 

 pots. 



The range of this tree extends from New Brunswick to 

 Dakota and south to Virginia and Texas. Its wood is 

 used for carriage bodies, furniture, cooperage, paper pulp, 

 charcoal, and fuel. 



The Bee Tree, or White Basswood 



T, heterophylla, Vent. 



The bee tree or white basswood of the South has nar- 

 rower leaves than the species just described, and they 

 vary in form and size; but always have Hnings of fine, 

 silvery down, and the fruits are fuzzy. A wonderful, 

 dazzling play of white, pale green, and deeper shades is 

 seen when one of these trees flutters its leaf mass against a 

 background, sombre with hemlocks and an undergrowth 

 of rhododendron. The favorite haunts of this species are 

 the sides of mountain streams. Wild bees store their 

 hoard of honey in the hollow trunks of old trees; and it is 



