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1. TILIA Linn. Lime.
Cal. 5-partite. Pet. 5, with or without a nectary at the base. Ovary 5-celled; cells with 2 ovules. Fruit 1-celled, 12-seeded. Name of obscure origin, perhaps from the Celtic; in modern Gaelic, the Lime is called Teile.
1. T. parviflora Ehrh. [1] (small-leaved
L.); nectaries none, leaves smooth above glaucous beneath with scattered as
well as axillary hairy blotches, branches and petioles glabrous, fruit oblique
with filiform ribs chartaceous brittle at length nearly glabrous. E. B.
t. 1705. T. microphylla Vent.
Woods in Essex, Lincolnshire, &c. Sussex, Wales; safely to be
reckoned indigenous: Borrer. Tree. 7, 8. Leaves when
young covered beneath with stellate hairs. Angles or ribs of the fruit
often concealed by the pubescence before it falls off.
2. T. Europæ'a L. [2] (common L. or
Linden-tree); nectaries none, leaves twice the length of the foot-stalks
quite glabrous except a woolly tuft at the origin of each vein beneath,
branches and petioles glabrous, fruit coriaceous downy nearly equal-sided with
slightly prominent angles. E. B. t. 610. T. intermedia DC.
Wood and hedge-rows, probably not indigenous. Tree. 7? Leaves
pale beneath, but scarcely glaucous. A large and handsome tree; it
flowers at dewy eve distilling odours, yellowish-green, on a
stalked cyme, springing from a large lanceolate foliaceous
bractea, which falls off with the fructified cymes. Best
distinguished from the last by the fruit. Linnæus is said to have
derived his own name from the Swedish Lin, our Linden- or Lime-tree.
3. T. grandifolia Ehrh. [3](broad-leaved downy
L.); nectaries none, leaves downy, especially beneath with solitary hairs,
origin of the veins woolly, young branches and petioles hairy, fruit woody
downy with prominent angles. E. B. S. t. 2720.
Woods and hedges, in several places; scarcely wild. Blair in Athol, Scotland.
Near Edinburgh. Tree. 6, 7. The angles or ribs of the fruit are often
obscure when young, but are afterwards prominent. The number of flowers in the
umbel or cyme varies from 2 to 9 in all our British species.
1. The Small-leaved Lime is now known as T. cordata
Miller.
2. The Common Lime is correctly known as T. ×
vulgaris Hayne, but remains widely known as T. europaea.
3. The Large-Leaved Lime is now known as T.
platyphyllos Scop.
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