LINDEN FAMILY 



F/invers. — June, 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/y-r.— Sepals five, lanceolate, valvate in bud, hypogynous, 

 downy within, hairy without. 



Corolla. — Petals fi\e, imbricate in bud, hypogynous, alternate with 

 the sepals, spatulate-oblong, creamy white. 



Statiwns. — Numerous, polyadelphous ; filaments thread - like, 

 forked, collected into fi\e clusters, with a petaloid scale placed op- 

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



Pistil. — Ovary superior, five-celled ; style erect ; stigma five- 

 lobed ; ovules two in each cell. 



Fruit. — Nut-like, woody, tomentose, gray, ovoid or spherical, 

 clustered on a long stem, about the size of peas. October. 



Oh, \vlio upon earth could ever cut down a Linden ? 



— Walter Savage Landor. 



The Linden is to be recommended as an ornamental tree 

 when a mass of toliage or a deep sliade is desired ; no native 

 tree surpas.ses it in this res|)ect. It is often p'anted on the 

 windward side of an orchard as a ]n-otec:tion to young and 

 delicate trees. Its sturdy trunk stands like a (jillar and the 

 branches divide and sulidivide into niniierous ramifications 

 on which tlie spray is small and thick. In stmimer this is 

 profusely clothed witli large leaves and the residt is a dense 

 head of abundant foliage. 



In winter a liranch of the Linden may Ije recognized by its 

 deep red buds; and tlie delicate leaves which burst from 

 them in the spring are a vi\id green. Tennyson, who saw so 

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

 this, as : 



A million emeralds break from the ruby-budded lime. 



The cliaracteristics of tlie linden family are the same 

 wheilier the individual tree grows in America, Europe, or 

 Asia. The wood is light, soft, tough, and dural:)le. This 

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

 furniture, bodies of carriages ; it is also especially adapted 



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