512 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
with large, rich, thick masses of foliage, forming a beautiful 
and striking object when seen from a distance. 
The bark is less rugged than that of almost any other tree,— 
except the beech ;—on the young shoots, it is of a dark brown or 
brownish-gray color, which gradually changes, on the larger, 
toa light ash gray. The dark color of the young shoots, by 
which it is readily distinguished from the European species, 
has gained for it, in England and France, the common name of 
the Black Lime Tree. 
The leaves are roundish in their outline, heart-shaped or 
obliquely truncate at base, inequilateral,—the side nearest the 
branch the largest,—acuminate, serrated with sharply acuminate 
serratures, smooth on both surfaces, with minutc tufts of russet 
down at the axils of the nerves and veins beneath; of a deep 
green above, paler beneath, of soft, membranaceous texture, four 
or five inches long and equally wide. In autumn, they turn to 
a lemon yellow color. The leaf-stalk is half the length of the 
leaf, and smooth. Flower-stalk as long as the leaf, smooth, 
twice or thrice trichotomous at the end, rising from the upper 
axil of the leaf, pendulous, attached, for half its length, to an 
oblong, membranous, ribbon-like, pale-straw-colored bract, as 
long as itself. ‘The flowers, which are from 9 to 27, are yellow- 
ish-white and very fragrant. The fruit is a woody or bony, 
pubescent, roundish, gray nut, one fourth of an inch in diameter, 
containing one seed. It flowers in July and August, and ripens 
its fruit in October. 
The wood of the lime tree is soft and whitc, and of a fine, 
close grain. It is softer and more tough and pliable than almost 
any other wood, and is much used for the panels of carriages 
and wagons. Itis also used by cabinetmakers for the bottom 
and sides of drawers, and for similar purposes. Where pine is 
scarce, bass wood boards are used as a substitute, by house-car- 
penters, for interior finishing. For certain purposes, it is prefer- 
able to pine, on account of its very great toughness and pliability. 
It is, therefore, much used by stair-builders for the curved ends 
of stairs. Itis well adapted to carving and turning. Small boxes 
and wooden bowls are sometimes turned of it, and, on the Ohio 
River, Michaux says it was formerly employed as the material 
