Leaves ovate, abruptly acuminate at apex, very oblique at the truncate or rounded base, dentate with small remote glandular apiculate teeth, covered when they unfold with loose floccose pubescence, nearly glabrous when fully grown early in April, when the flowers open the middle of May dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, pale blue-green and lustrous below, and at mid-summer when the fruit ripens, subcoriaceous, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, with slender primary veins without or occasionally with minute axillary tufts, and connected by conspicuous straight or curved veinlets, 3½′—4′ long and 2½′—3′ wide; petioles slender, glabrous, ¾′—1′ in length; leaves on leading summer branchlets sometimes obliquely cordate, more coarsely serrate, covered on the upper surface with short fascicled hairs, and floccose-pubescent on the lower surface, 4′—5′ long and 4′—4¾′ wide, their petioles puberulous. Flowers opening the middle of May, ¼′ long, on tomentose pedicels, in compact pubescent many-flowered cymes; peduncle slender, glabrous, the free portion only ⅗′—⅘′ in length, its bract oblong, occasionally slightly obovate, rounded at the ends, hoary-tomentose on the under surface and pubescent on the upper surface when it first appears, and when the flowers open puberulous below and glabrous above, 3½′—6′ long, ½′—⅗′ wide and shorter than and decurrent to the base of the peduncle; sepals ovate, acuminate, pale pubescent on the outer surface, villose at the base on the inner surface, a third shorter than the lanceolate acuminate petals; staminodia oblong-obovate, rounded at apex, about half the length of the petals; style glabrous. Fruit ripening the middle of July, globose to depressed-globose, covered with loose brown tomentum, ¼′ in diameter.
A small tree with slender dull red glabrous branchlets, the leading branchlets in summer more or less pubescent. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, dull red, glabrous or pubescent on leading shoots, ⅕′—¼′ long.
Distribution. Louisiana, river banks and low woods, Lake Charles and West Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish.
8. [Tilia neglecta] Spach.
Tilia Michauxii Sarg., not Nutt.
Leaves thick and firm, acute or abruptly narrowed and long-pointed at apex, obliquely concave or unsymmetrically cordate at base, coarsely serrate with straight apiculate teeth pointing forward, dark green, smooth, glabrous and lustrous above, covered below except on the midrib and veins more or less thickly with short gray pubescence often slightly tinged with brown, and furnished with conspicuous tufts of axillary hairs, usually 4′—5½′ long and 2½′—4½′ wide; petioles stout, glabrous, 1¼′—2½′ in length. Flowers opening in June and July about ⅖′ long, on pubescent or nearly glabrous pedicels, in long-branched slender glabrous mostly 5—15-flowered cymes; peduncle slender, glabrous, the free portion 1¼′—1½′ in length, its bract gradually narrowed and cuneate or unsymmetrically cuneate or rounded at base, rounded at apex, glabrous, 2¾′—4½′ long, ⅖′—⅘′ wide and longer than and decurrent nearly to the base or to within ⅗′ of the base of the peduncle; sepals broad-ovate, acute, ciliate on the margins, glabrous on the outer surface, covered on the inner surface with long white hairs, about half as long as the lanceolate petals rounded and notched at apex and rather longer than the spatulate staminodia; stamens included; style villose toward the base. Fruit ripening in September, ellipsoid, ovoid, obovoid, or depressed-globose, rounded or acute or rarely gradually narrowed and acuminate at apex, rarely 5-angled, covered with rusty or pale pubescence, usually about ⅓′ in diameter.
A tree, 75°—90° high, with a trunk sometimes 3° in diameter, smooth often pendulous branches forming a broad round head, and slender glabrous branchlets. Winter-buds ovoid, rounded at the narrowed apex, about ⅕′ long, with glabrous red-brown or light brown scales. Bark of the trunk about 1′ thick, deeply furrowed, pale reddish brown and covered with small thin scales.
Distribution. Rich moist soil, Province of Quebec, near Montreal, to the coast of Massachusetts and New York, through the middle states to the valley of the Potomac River and along the Appalachian Mountains to those of North Carolina, and to Iuka, Tishomingo County, Mississippi, and from central and western New York to northern Missouri.