LINDEN FAMILY 
Flowers.—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. 
Calyx.—Sepals five, lanceolate, valvate in bud, hypogynous, 
downy within, hairy without. 
Corolla.—Petals five, imbricate in bud, hypogynous, alternate with 
the sepals, spatulate-oblong, creamy white. 
Stamens.—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. 
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, who upon earth could ever cut down a Linden? 
—WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. 
[he Linden is to be recommended as an ornamental tree 
when a mass of foliage or a deep shade is desired; no native 
tree surpasses it in this respect. It is often planted 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 abundant foliage. 
In winter a branch of the Linden may be recognized by its 
deep red buds; and the delicate leaves which burst from 
them in the spring are a vivid 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 characteristics of the linden family are the same 
whether 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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