116 TILIACE^. TiLiA. 



Order XXIII. TILIACEtE. Juss. The Linden Tribe. 



Calyx of 4 - 5 deciduous sepals ; the aestivation valvate. Corolla of 4 - 5 

 hypogynous petals, rarely wanting. Stamens usually indefinite, hypogj-nous : 

 filaments distinct, or often in 3 - 5 clusters : anthers 2-celled. Disk often 

 with 4-5 glands (transformed stamens) at the base of the petals. Ovary of 

 2-10 united carpels : styles united : stigmas as many as the carpels. Fruit 

 a 2 - 5-celled capsule with several seeds in each cell, or coriaceous or drupa- 

 ceous, sometimes by abortion 1-celled and 1 - 2-seeded. Seeds anatropous. 

 Embryo in the axis of fleshy albumen : cotyledons foliaceous, flat. — Trees or 

 shrubby plants, with alternate leaves, deciduous stipules and axillary flowers. 



1. TILIA. Linn.; Vent.monog. Til. 1802; E7idl. gen. 5373. LINDEN or LIME TREE. 



[A name of obscure origin.] 



Sepals and petals 5. Stamens numerous, usually somewhat united into five parcels ; the 

 central one of each parcel (in the North American species) transformed into a petaloid scale. 

 Ovary globose, villous, 5-celled ; the cells with 2 ovules. Fruit coriaceous or woody, 

 scarcely globose, by abortion 1-celled, 1 - 2-seeded. — Trees with obliquely cordate leaves 

 and a tough fibrous bark. Flowers cymose, with the lower part of the peduncle adnate to 

 a large foliaceous bract. 



1. TiLiA Americana, Linn. Whitewood. Bassioood. 



Leaves cordate or truncate at the base, somewhat coriaceous, smooth, abruptly acuminate ; 

 petals obtuse or truncate, crenate at the apex. — Willd. sp. 2. p. 1261 ; MicJuv. f. sylv. 2. 

 p. 233. t. 131 ; Bigel.jl. Bost.p. 214 ; Torr. ^ Gr.Jl. N.Ain. l.p.239. T. glabra. Vent. 

 I. c. t. 1./. 1 ; Pursh, Jl. 2. p. 362 ; Ell. sk. 2. p. 2; DC.prodr. \.p. 513 ; Hooh.fl. Bor.- 

 Am. \.p. 108; Darlingt. Jl. Cest.p. 312. T. Canadensis, Michx. fl. l.p. 306. 



A large tree, often 60 - 80 feet high and 2-4 feet in diameter, with grayish bark and 

 soft white wood. Leaves 3-5 inches long and about the same in breadth, coarsely and 

 mucronately serrate, with a small tuft of reddish hairs in the axils of the veins underneath : 

 petioles about 2 inches long. Peduncle about 4 inches long, trichotomously cymose at the 

 summit, the lower half firmly united to a linear-oblong yellowish foliaceous bract, the free 

 portion pendulous. Flowers nearly an inch in diameter. Sepals triangular-lanceolate, pu- 

 bescent externally, woolly within. Petals yellowish-white, nearly twice as long as the calyx. 

 Scales (staminodia) nearly as long as the petals, and resembling them in form. Stamens 

 shorter than the petals. Style variable in length, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter than 



