TILIAOEAE 243 



Hovenia dulcis Thunberg. 

 Chi Ku. Baisin Tree. 



Tree to 25 m. tall or rarely taller, with deep gray, fissured bark. 

 Leaves ovate-acuminate, or cordate-ovate, serrate or sometimes entire, 

 membranous, glabrous or rarely more or less pubescent, 10-15 cm. long, 

 5-8 cm. wide. 



The sweet, fleshy peduncles are edible. The tree is extensively 

 planted. 



TILIACEAE 



Trees or shrubs or herbs. Leaves alternate, simple, entire or lobed; 

 stipules small, deciduous. Flowers perfect, regular; sepals 3-5, valvate, 

 free; petals as many as the sepals,' rarely wanting. Stamens numerous, 

 attached to a torus or disk, their filaments free or variously united. 

 Ovary superior, free, 2-10 celled; ovules 1 to several in each cell; style 

 1. Fruit fleshy or dry, dehiscent or indehiscent, 1-several seeded; 

 seeds usually albuminous. 



About 36 genera and 400 species, mostly tropical, but widely dis- 

 tributed throughout the world. Most members of this family contain a 

 mucilaginous property which has rendered several species available for 

 medicinal use. 



Tilia is the only important arborescent representative in China. 



TILIA 



Trees with tough, fibrous inner bark, slender branches, and zigzag 

 or 2 ranked twigs. Leaves simple, alternate, arranged in 2 rows, acute, 

 serrate, usually obliquely cordate at the base, occasionally truncate or 

 rounded; venation pseudopalmate, the rnidrib subtended by 4 or 5 veins 

 radiating from the base of the leaf or apex of the leaf-stalk. Flowers 

 in cymes, regular, perfect, white, fragrant; peduncle united half its 

 length with the midrib of an elongated, membranous, light green 

 persistent bract. Petals 5, alternating with 5 sepals. Stamens numerous, 

 free or united into 5 clusters, attached to a petaloid scale placed opposite 

 each petal. Ovary sessile, 5 celled, 2 ovuled. Fruit nut-like, woody, 

 globose, sometimes ribbed, 1 celled, 2 seeded by the obliteration of the 

 partitions and by abortion, attached to the persistent leaf-like bract. 



