Ashe's Linden 



687 



The bark is about 1.25 cm. thick, furrowed, and separates into short, flat 

 scales of a light brown color. The twigs are round, smooth, greenish to light red, 

 becoming brown with age. The winter buds are 

 broadly ovoid, flattened, and red. The leaves are 

 12 to 20 cm. long, scarcely two thirds as wide, 

 variable in outline, oblong-ovate to orbicular- 

 ovate, obhque and cordate to truncate at the base, 

 short tapeTp^iuted, toothed with short, abruptly 

 pointed teeth; the upper surface is dark green 

 and smooth, the under side white or grayish and 

 finely hairy; the leaf-stalk is slender, about one 

 fourth the length of the blade. The bracts of the 

 peduncles are sessile or nearly so, abruptly nar- 

 rowed to the base, blimtish at the apex, 9 to 15 

 cm. long, about 2 cm. wide, and somewhat hairy. 

 The free portion of the peduncle is rather long 

 and bears from 5 to 15 flowers. The sepals 

 are ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, rather 

 sharply pointed, slightly shorter than the narrow ^^°' ^^^' 



petals, which are 7 to 9 mm. long; the spatulate staminodes are one fourth 

 shorter; the style is longer than the petals; the woolly ovary ripens into a globose 

 ashy gray fruit 7 to 9 nam. in diameter. 



The wood is soft and close-grained, light brown; its specific gravity is about 

 0.42; it has more prominent medullary rays, but is not distinguished from the 

 wood of the American linden in commerce. 



■ White Linden. 



5. ASHE'S LINDEN — TiUa ebumea Ashe 



A small tree reaching a height of 22 meters, occurring in the foothills of mid- 

 dle North Carolina, South Carolina, and northern Georgia. It is also called the 

 Blue Ridge lin. 



The bark is furrowed, dark gray-brown on the trunk, smoother and of a silver 

 gray color on the branches; the twigs are smooth or somewhat glaucous, green- 

 red to reddish brown, becoming gray with age; the buds are quite large, ovoid, 

 smooth, somewhat glaucous. The leaves are thick, 8 to 14 cm. long, ovate to 

 orbicular-ovate, abruptly taper-pointed and unequally cordate or truncate at the 

 base, sharply toothed on the margin, dark green and smooth above, the lower 

 surface densely woolly, becoming less so as the leaf matures; the rather slender 

 leaf-stalk is smooth, sometimes glaucous, one third the length of the blade. The 

 bracts are oblong to spatulate, decurrent to the base of the peduncle or nearly so, 

 rounded at the apex, more or less so at the base, 7 to 11 cm. long, one fourth as 

 wide, glabrate above, usually soft hairy beneath; the peduncle is about two thirds 

 the length of the bract, its free portion short, with few (2 to 6) rather small flowers ; 



