TILIAGBM. 



171 



If we take, on the contrary, the flowers of some other species, 

 such as T. americcma, nigra, argentea, &c, we see, with the same 

 general organization, a difference in the androceum, inasmuch as the 

 upper stamen of each phalanx is transformed into a sterile petaloid 

 lamella, contorted or imbricated in the bud with the other oppositi- 

 petalous staminodes. 1 The Limes are trees, often tall, with organs 

 nearly glabrous, or besprinkled with fine, simple or stellate hairs. 

 The leaves are alternate, simple, serrate, often cordate and unsyui- 



Tilla sylvestris. 



Fig. 183. 

 Seed (f). 



Fig. 182. 



Fruits. 



Fig. 184. 



Long. sect, of seed. 



metrical at the base. The petiole is accompanied by two lateral 

 stipules. The flowers 2 are united in racemes terminated by a flower, 

 or in racemes of terminal or axillary cymes. 3 The principal axis of 

 the inflorescence bears several bracts, the lowest of which, much 

 more developed than the others, elongated and foliaceous, remains 

 adnate to the axis for a considerable distance, often nearly to the 

 middle of its height. This genus, in which a great many species 4 



1 Sect. Lindnera (Reichb., Consp., 299). 



2 White or yellowish, aromatic. 



3 The inflorescence of the Limes has been, says 

 Payer {Organog., 20), "the object of deep dis- 

 cussion between Wydler and Brunner: the 

 latter maintaining that the cluster of flowers is 

 a prolongation of the principal axis, and that 

 the foliaceous bud to be seen at the base is only 

 a lateral production ; the former holding, on the 

 contrary, that the foliaceous bud is the prolonga- 

 tion of the principal axis, and that the cluster 

 of flowers is only a secondary order." The same 

 author has shown that the bud is secondary and 

 that the axis terminated by the flower is the 

 principal. He saw in the species studied by 

 him, seven flowers at a given time in one inflo- 



rescence, 



1 one more developed than the others, 

 which terminated the principal axis, and six 

 others, all of the same generation, which are 

 lodged in the axil of two stipulate bracts and 

 their stipules," and decided that " if a greater 

 number are seen afterwards, it is because each of 

 these six flowers is accompanied in its turn by 

 two new bracts, which are sterile or fertile." 

 The bracts are distichous. We find first a large 

 bract, later on back to back with the axis, and 

 always destitute of stipules on the other side, 

 the bract with germeniferous axil which also 

 bears no stipules on its side. The bracts 3 and 

 4 superposed reciprocally to bracts 1 and 2, are 

 accompanied by two small lateral stipules. 



4 Reichb., Ic. Fl. Germ., vi. 311-324.— 



