LINDEN FAMILY 
Tilia pubescens, the Downy Linden, or Small-leaved Bass- 
wood, is a southern species which makes 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 7. americana. 
Tilia heterophylla, the White Basswood, is a mountain spe- 
cies ranging along the Alleghanies from Pennsylvania to 
Tennessee. At its best it reaches the height of sixty 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 fruit bract is pointed at the base, the flowers 
are larger than those of 7. americana, 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 europea, 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 among the stamens, which is 
so marked a characteristic of all American lindens, and the 
leaves are a little darker than those of our native species. 
Several varieties are in cultivation. 
rc) 
