TREES AND SHRUBS. 



TILIA LEPTOPHYLLA (Tent.), Sm. 



Tilia leptophylla ( Ventenat), Small, Fl. Southeastern U. S. 762 (not Simonkai) (1903) ; Brit- 

 ton & Shafer, N. Am. Trees, 690, f. 642. 

 Tilia pubescens, var. leptophylla, Ventenat, Mem. Acad. Sci. (Paris) iv. 11 (1799). 



Leaves ovate, abruptly acuminate and long-pointed at the apex, truncate, unsymmetrical and 

 more or less oblique or cordate and nearly symmetrical at the base, and coarsely serrate, with 

 acuminate apiculate teeth ; when they unfold covered above with scattered pale hairs and below 

 with white tomentum, when the flowers open glabrous on the upper surface and more or less 

 covered on the lower surface with clusters of floccose hairs sometimes early deciduous and some- 

 times persistent during the season, destitute of axillary hairs or occasionally furnished with small 

 axillary clusters, and at maturity thin, dark yellow-green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler 

 on the lower surface, from 8 to 15 centimetres long and from 6 to 12 centimetres wide, with thin 

 prominent midribs and primary veins ; petioles slender, glabrous, from 3 to 6 centimetres in length ; 

 stipules oblong to slightly obovate, acuminate, glabrous above, villose below. Flowers on floccose- 

 pubescent pedicels from the axils of lanceolate pubescent bractlets deciduous before the flowers 

 open, on slender peduncles sparingly villose in early spring, soon becoming glabrous, the free por- 

 tion from 3.5 to 4 centimetres long, their bracts more or less obovate, rounded or acute at the 

 apex, slightly pubescent and ciliate at first, soon becoming glabrous, from 7 to 10 centimetres in 

 length, decurrent to the base or to within 5 or 6 millimetres of the base of the peduncle ; sepals 

 ovate, acuminate, hoary-tomentose on the outer surface, villose on the inner surface, about two 

 thirds as long as the acuminate apiculate petals; petaloid scales emarginate. Fruit subglobose 

 to short-oblong, hoary-tomentose, without angles, from 5 to 6 millimetres in diameter. 



A tree, sometimes from 20 to 30 metres high, with a tall trunk from 1 to 1.5 metres in diam- 

 eter and covered with pale gray furrowed bark, stout spreading and ascending branches forming 

 a round-topped head, and slender light red-brown branchlets coated when they first appear with 

 matted pale hairs, soon becoming glabrous. 1 Flowers in the first half of June. Fruit ripens in 

 October. 



Missouri: Noel, B. F. Bush, April 25, 1909 (No. 5530). Arkansas : Fulton, in the rich bottom- 

 lands of the Red River, B. F. Bush, April 11, 1905 (No. 2290), April 5, 1909 (No. 5464 A), 

 April 28, 1909 (No. 5543), May 19, 1909 (No. 5647 B), June 6, 1909 (No. 5780 A), June 10, 

 1909 (Nos. 5814, 5815), October 4, 1909 (No. 5926), C. S. Sargent, March 27, 1909. Louisiana : 

 Shreveport, R. S. Cocks, June, 1908 (No. 10), D. Coty, June, 1909; near Alexandria, R. S. 

 Cocks, June, 1905 ; near Opelousas, C. S. Sargent, March 29, 1900 ; West Feliciana Parish, R. S. 

 Cocks, June, 1907. Texas : Larissa, B. F. Bush, April 30, 1909 (No. 5571), October 7, 1909 

 (No. 5777) (all in herb. Arnold Arboretum). 2 



» On a specimen collected at Larissa, Texas, by Mr. B. F. Bush, April 30, 1909 (No. 5571), the branch of the previous year is 

 covered with short matted pale hairs, while the lateral branchlets of the year are glabrous. Other specimens from the same 

 locality do not show this peculiarity. At Lake Charles, Louisiana, where the tree is common, there is a form with nearly gla- 

 brous leaves with teeth reduced to stout mucros (Cocks §■ Sargent, March, 1911). 



2 Specimens without flowers or fruit collected by me on the rocky cliffs of the Savannah River at the Locks a few miles above 

 Augusta, Georgia, are perhaps of this species. 



Tilia leptophylla appears to be the only Linden in southern Arkansas, and it is probably the only species in Louisiana and east- 

 ern Texas with the exception of Tilia pubescent, Aiton, which is found in the immediate neighborhood of the coast from North 

 Carolina to Texas, and which differs from TUia leptophylla by the rusty tomentum of the leaves, fruit and branches, and by the 

 smaller strap-shaped rarely slightly obovate bracts of the peduncles. 



