LINDEN FAMILY 



Tilia puhfsiciis, the Downy Linden, or Small-leaved Bass- 

 wood, is a southern species wliicli malves its way as far north 

 as Long Island. It is a small tree, nowhere common, but 

 found at its best in South Carolina. The leaves are usually 

 two or three inches long ; shoots and leaves and fruit cov- 

 ered with rusty down ; the fruit bract rounded at the base, 

 the flowers smaller and the nutlets more spherical than those 

 of T. americana. 



Tilia Iicteropliylla, the ^Vhite Basswood, is a mountain spe- 

 cies ranging along the Alleghanies from Pennsylvania to 

 Tennessee. At its best it reaches the height of si.xty feet. 

 The leaves are large, very unilateral, six or seven inches long, 

 four or five broad, light green or smooth above, silvery downy 

 beneath. The friht bract is pointed at the base, the flowers 

 are larger than those of T. aineritaiia, the fruit is spherical and 

 downy. The tree is not generally known, but Professor Sar- 

 gent, in " The Silva of North America," says of it : " Few North 

 American trees surpass it in beauty of foliage ; and the con- 

 trast made by the silvery whiteness of the under surface of 

 its ample leaves as they flutter on their slender stems, with 

 the dark green of the Hemlocks and Laurels on the banks of 

 rapid mountain streams produces one of the most beautiful 

 effects which can be seen in the splendid forests which clothe 

 the valleys of the southern Appalachian Mountains." 



Tilia ei/ropica, the European linden, is distinguished from 

 the American lindens by its smaller and more regularly heart- 

 shaped leaves. Although the second midrib is present the 

 leaf often becomes scarcely unilateral. The flowers are 

 destitute of the petal-like scale ainong the stamens, which is 

 so inarked a characteristic of all American lindens, and the 

 leaves are a little darker than those of our native species. 

 Several varieties are in cultivation. 



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