LINDEN FAMILY 



Flowers.— ]\.me, July. Perfect, regular, yellowish white, fragrant, 

 nectariferous, downy, borne in cymous clusters, pendulous, with the 

 flower-stalk attached for half its length to the vein of an oblong leaf- 

 like bract as long as itself Flower buds densely coated with white 

 tomentum ; bract pointed at base. 



Gz/)'-r.— Sepals fix-e, lanceolate, valvate in bud, hypogynous. 

 downy within, hairy without. 



Corolla.— ?eU\'i five, niibricate in bucl, hypogynous, alternate with 

 the sepals, spatulate-oblong, creamy white. 



S/aiiH-ns. — Numerous, polyadelphous ; filaments thread - like, 

 forked, collected into five clusters, with a petaloid scale placed op- 

 posite each petal ; anthers fixed by the middle, two-celled, extrorse. 



/V,t///.^Ovary superior, five-celled ; style erect ; stigma five- 

 lobed ; ovules t«o ni each cell. 



I'ndt. — Nut-like, woody, tomentose, gray, ovoid or spherical, 

 clustered on a long stem, aljout the size ot peas. October. 



Oh, who upon earth cuuhl ever cut (hjw n a Linden ? 



— Walter Savage Landor. 



riie Linden is to Ije recommended as an ornamental tree 

 when a mass of foliage or a deep shade is desired ; no nati\-e 

 tree surpasses it in this res|)ect. It is often ji'anted on the 

 windward side of an orchard as a protection to young and 

 delicate trees. Its sturdy trunk stands like a pillar and the 

 branches divide and subdivide into numerous ramifications 

 on which the spray is small and thick. In summer this is 

 profusely clothed with large leaves and the result is a dense 

 head of alnmdant foliage. 



In winter a branch of the Linden may be recognized by its 

 dee|) red buds ; and the delicate leaves which burst from 

 them in the s[jring are a vivid green. 'renn)'son, who saw so 

 many of the hidden beauties of nature, did not fail to observe 

 this, as : 



A miUiijo emerald;^ break from the ruby-budded hme. 



The characteristics of the linden family are the same 

 wdiecher the individual tree grows in America, Europe, or 

 Asia. The wood is light, soft, tough, and durable. This 

 makes it valuable in the manufacture of wooden-ware, cheap 

 furniture, bodies of carriages ; it is also especially adapted 



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