Studies of trees in winter

by Annie Oakes Huntington

1. The Linden. 2. The Liquidamber. 3. The Sassafras.

Chapter XI
THE LINDENS, THE LIQUIDAMBER, AND THE SASSAFRAS

Families Tiliaceæ, Hamamelidaceæ, and Lauraceæ

The Tiliaceæ are a tropical family with a single genus, the linden, as a representative in our climate. There are two species found wild south of New York besides the common linden, the small leaved basswood and the white basswood, but the common linden and the European linden are the two trees found commonly in New England.

Linden; Basswood Tilia americana

A tall tree, 60 to 80 feet high, frequently excurrent. The bark is rather smooth with shallow, close furrows, and the twigs are smooth, with a good deal of color. The leaf-scars are alternate, and the buds are smooth and red, the terminal one often being absent.

The main trunk of the linden frequently extends upwards undivided through the crown to the tip of the tree, with small branches growing from the trunk all the way up. This excurrent characteristic of the linden is especially marked in young trees which have grown in open situations, but even when the trunk has divided into large branches, or has grown in the forest shaded by other trees, and has lost its excurrent shape, the small branches growing directly out of the trunk distinguish it from other trees. The color in the young stems and buds is another means of its identification, and in early spring the deepening color in the twigs from the rising sap, shows that the linden is almost as responsive as the willow to warm rains and sunshine.

The wood is soft and white and close-grained. It is used for carving in the interior finish of houses, and for making wooden ware and cheap furniture. Sugar has been made from the sap, and the inner bark is made into a coarse cordage and matting, and in Europe a coarse cloth is made from it.

The Latin generic name probably comes from ptilon, the Greek word for a feather, in allusion to the feather-like bracts on the clusters of the flowers. The specific name, americana, was given to our native linden to distinguish it from the European species.