LINDEN 
for wood-carving. The inimitable carvings of fruit, flowers, 
and game by Grinling Gibbons, the famous English carver, 
were made entirely of linden; no other wood could be relied 
upon to be so even of texture and so free from knots. 
The leaves of all the lindens are one-sided, always heart- 
shaped, and the tiny fruit, looking like peas, always hangs at- 
tached to a curious, ribbon-like, 
greenish yellow bract, whose use 
seems to be to launch the ripened 
seed-clusters just a little beyond 
the parent tree. The flowers of 
the European and American lin- 
dens are similar, except that the 
American bears a petal-like scale 
among its stamens and the Euro- 
pean varieties are destitute of 
these appendages. 
The possible age of the Linden 
in America has not yet been de- 
termined. In Europe it is known 
to have reached the age of centu- 
ries. In the court-yard of the Im- 
perial Castle at Nurembérg is a 
Linden which tradition says was 
planted by the Empress Cuni- 
gunde, the wife of Henry II. of 
Germany. ‘This would make the 
tree nearly nine hundred years 
old. It looks ancient and infirm, 
but sends forth thrifty leaves on 
its two or three remaining branches and is of course cared 
for tenderly. The famous Linden of Neustadt on the Kocher 
in Wiirtemberg was computed to be one thousand years old 
when it fell. 
The Linden is loved of the bees. No matter how isolated 
the tree the bees are sure to find the fragrant nectar-laden 
blossoms. The excellence of the honey of far-famed Hybla 
27 
34 
Fruit of the Linden, Tilia americana. 
