68 



USEFUL WEEDS AXD PLANTS. 



0^5. This plant — as yielding the material for light clothing, and 

 especially in reference to its commercial value — may be regarded as one 

 of the most important objects of American Agriculture. Although not 

 so essential as the cereal tribe, the fibrous envelope of the seeds is scarcely 

 less interesting, as an article of trade, and as the subject of useful and 

 ingenious industry. 



Order XI. TILIA'CE^. (Lixdex Family.) 



Trees or shrubs having the mucilaginous quahties and tough inner bark of the Mallow 

 Family, alternate leaves with deciduous stipules and small axillary ^oz/je?-s. Sepals valvate 

 in the bud, deciduous. Petals imbricated in the bud. Stamens usually in clusters; 

 anthers 2-celled. Seeds albuminous. 



The Lindens are the only representatives of this order in the United States. Corchorus 

 capsularis of India furnishes the fibre from which the Gunny-iags of commerce are 

 made. 



1. TIL'IA, L. LixDEX. 



[The classical Latin name.] 



Sepal 5, connected at base. Petals 5. Stamens numerous, more or less 

 cohering in 5 parcels, the central one of each parcel — in the Korth 

 American species — cohering with the base of a petaloid scale, opposite 

 to the real petals. Ovary 5-celled ; cells with 2 ovules. Fruit coriaceous 

 or woody, globose, by abortion 1-celled, 1 - 2-seeded. Trees with sub- 

 cordate serrate leaves, and a tough, fibrous bark. Flowers in pendulous 

 cymes, with the lower half of the common peduncle adnate to a long 

 membrauo-foliaceous bract. 



1. T. Europ^'a, L. Leaves orbicular-cordate, acuminate, puberulent 

 beneath ; flowers without petaloid scales. 



EuROPEAX TiiAA. Linden, or Lime tree. European Linden. 

 Fr. Le Tilleul. Germ. Die Linde. Span. Tilo. 



stem 20-40 or 50 feet high, and 1-2 feet in diameter, the numerous branches forming 

 a handsome symmetrical top. ieaues 3 - 5 inches long ; petiolesl-2 inches long. Flowers 

 yellowish white . 



Cultivated. Native of Europe. JPZ. Beginning of June. i^/. Sept. -Oct. 



Obs. This foreign species has been extensively introduced as an orna- 

 mental shade tree in our cities and villages. In the beginning of summer 

 it is handsome, but the leaves begin to die or become diseased, assuming 

 a scorched appearance, soon after midsummer ; and the tree is, more- 

 over, infested by so many loathsome and destructive insects, that it is 

 now being superseded by others less subject to such accidents. The 

 flowers are said to afford to bees a superior quality of honey. 



2. T. America'na, L. Xeaves obliquely heart-shaped, or truncate at 

 base, abruptly acuminate, thickish, smooth, or nearly so ; flowers with 

 petaloid scales, connected with the filaments. 



American Tilia. Linden, or Linn. Basswood. White wood. 



stem 40-60 or 80 feet high, and 2-3 feet in diameter, with spreading branches, leavet 



