142 THE GEEANItTM FAMILY. 



cohering in several clusters. Ovary globular, 5-ceUed, with 2 ovules in each 

 cell, attached to the inner angle. Style single, with a 5-toothed stigma. 

 Fruit, a small globular nut, containing 1 or 2 seeds. 



A genus of very few species, widely distributed over the temperate zone 

 of the northern hemisphere, where it is the only representative of the 

 family. 



1. Comnxon Iiime. Tilia europsea, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 610. T. parvifolia, Eng. Bot. t. 1705. Lime-tree.) 



A handsome, long-lived tree, attaining sometimes as much as 120 feet in 

 height, but generally not above half that size. Leaves stalked, broadly 

 heart-shaped or nearly orbicular, often oblique, and always pointed, serrate 

 on the edge, glabrous above and more or less downy underneath, especially 

 in the angles of the principal veins. Peduncles hanging amongst the leaves, 

 bordered or winged halfway up by the long, narrow, leaf-hke bract. 

 Flowers sweet-scented, of a pale whitish-green. Nut downy when young, 

 but often glabrous when ripe. 



In woods, over nearly the whole of Europe, except the extreme north, 

 and extending eastward across Russian Asia to the Altai. Much planted 

 in Britain, and probably truly wild in southern and western England, and 

 perhaps in Ireland. FL summer. It varies much in tlie size of the leaves, 

 in the degree of down on their under surface and on the fruits, in the 

 greater or less prominence of the 5 filiform ribs of the fruit, etc. The truly 

 indigenous form in northern Europe is always a small-leaved one. The 

 large-leaved variety which we commonly plant {T. grandifolia, Eng. Bot. 

 Suppl. t. 2720) is of south European origin, with the leaves still further 

 enlarged by cultivation. Some North American species are also frequently 

 planted. 



XVIII. THE GERANIUM FAMILY. GEEANIACE^. 



Annual or perennial herbs, or, in exotic species, low shrubs, 

 with opposite or rarely alternate leaves, usually more or less 

 divided or toothed, and furnished with stipules. Flowers 

 regular in the British genera, irregular in some exotic ones. 

 Sepals 5, overlapping in the bud. IPetals 5, twisted in the bud. 

 Stamens 5 to 10, often united at the base. Ovary 5-lobed and 

 5-celled, with one or several seeds in each, all attached to the 

 central axis. Styles 5. Fruit 5-lobed, the carpels opening or 

 partially falling off when ripe, leaving a central, persistent 

 axis. 



The Geranium famUy resembles the Fink and Mallow famihes in the 

 twisted arrangement of tlieir petals, but differs from the former in fohage 

 as well as in fruit, and from the latter in the definite stamens. The species 

 are distributed nearly all over the globe, but most numerous in the temperate 

 regions of the northern hemisphere, and more especially in south-western 

 Africa. The lunits of the Order are as yet very unsettled, some botanists 

 including Flaxes, Balsams, and many other exotic genera, whilst others 



