Linden tree

“ So numerous are the purposes to which the bark, wood, leaves and blossoms of the lime, or linden, tree can be applied that centuries ago it was called the tree of a thousand uses. Linden is the name by which it is always known on the continent of Europe, and there it is indeed a magnificent tree, forming the most delightful avenues and branching colonnades. ”

“ The seeds of the Linden-tree rarely ripen in Britain; this tree is, therefore, properly propagated by layers, which must be made in the nursery in autumn; in one year they become rooted so as to allow of being removed. It will grow well in any soil or situation, but if planted in a rich loamy earth, the rapidity of its growth will be almost incredible. The timber of the Lime-tree is very serviceable, and much preferable to that of the willow, being stronger yet lighter. ”

“ The American linden or basswood is a stately spreading tree reaching one hundred and twenty feet in height and a trunk diameter of four feet. The bark is brown, furrowed, and scaly, the branches gray and smooth, the twigs ruddy. The alternate leaves are obliquely heart-shaped, saw-toothed, with prominent veins that branch at the base, only on the side next to the petiole. (See illustration, page 86.) Occasionally the leaf blades are eight inches long. A dense shade is cast by a linden tree in midsummer. ”

“ In Finland and in Sweden, the Linden is considered as a protective tree.——In the cemetery of the hospital of Annaberg, in Saxony, there is a very ancient Linden-tree, concerning which tradition relates that it was planted by an inhabitant, with its top in the ground ”

“ The linden is found growing wild in rich [Pg 143] woods from New Brunswick to Georgia and as far west as Kansas.
The European lindens, or as they are called in England “lime trees,” may be distinguished from our linden by their twigs, which are more numerous and more slender than those of our species. The linden has long been a favorite tree for formal effects, both in Europe and in this country. ”

“ In the districts where the forest-trees mostly consist of lindens, the inhabitants are principally engaged in the manufacture of matting, which, according to its greater or less degree of fineness, is employed either for sacking or sail cloth, or merely as packing mats. The linden-tree grows only on moist soils, rich in black humus, or vegetable mould; but will not grow at all in sandy soils, which renders it comparatively scarce in some parts of Russia, while in others it grows abundantly. ”

“ The female line, or linden tree waxeth very great and thicke, spreading forth its branches wide and fare abroad, being a tree which yieldeth a most pleasant shadow, under and within whose boughs may be made brave summer houses and banqueting arbors, because the more that it is surcharged with weight of timber and such like, the better it doth flourish. The bark is brownish, very smooth and plaine on the outside, but that which is next to the timber is white, moist and tough, serving very well for ropes, trases and halters. The timber is whitish, plaine, and without knots ”

“ The beech (Fagus ferruginea) occurs through nearly the whole of the eastern forest region, ranging from Nova Scotia south and south-west to Florida and Texas, and west to Missouri. The linden, lime, bass-wood, or white-wood (Tilia americana) is a tree of wide range, occurring more and more abundantly as we go west from New England through the region south of the Great Lakes into the Ohio valley, and found south along the Appalachians to Georgia. It has its maximum development towards the west and south-west in the rich bottom-lands. ”

“ The family name of Linnæus, the famous botanist, was originally derived from linn, the Swedish name for the linden, a large tree having always stood by the old family homestead.
The European lindens are not so well suited [Pg 144] to our climate as our native basswood, but it seems to be more generally planted in our city streets, in spite of this fact.
The Hamamelis family is a small order of trees and shrubs with two genera in the United States,—the Hamamelis and Liquidambar; each genus has but one species. ”

“ T. Europæ̀a, the European Linden, several varieties of which are planted in and near our cities for shade, is at once distinguished from any native species by the absence of the petal-like scales among the stamens. This tree (the Lin) gave the family name to Linnæus.
Order 22. LINÀCEÆ. (Flax Family.)
Herbs (rarely shrubs) with the regular and symmetrical hypogynous flowers 4–6-merous throughout, strongly imbricated calyx and convolute petals, 5 stamens monadelphous at base, and an 8–10-seeded pod, having twice as many cells as there are styles. ”

“ It grows on the fir likewise, the larch, the pitch-tree, the linden, the nut-tree, and the plane, and remains on the tree throughout the winter, after the leaves have fallen. It contains a kernel very similar to that of the pine-nut, and increases in size during the winter. In spring the ball opens throughout, and it finally drops when the leaves are beginning to grow. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Again, the tale of woe! for the great lindens of our forests are nearly all gone. Too useful for timber; too easy to fell; its soft, smooth, even wood too adaptable to many uses! Cut them all; strip the bark for "bast," or tying material; America is widening; the sawmills cannot be idle; scientific and decent forestry, so successful and so usual in Europe, is yet but a dream for future generations here in America! [Pg 209]
The American linden
But other lindens, those of Europe especially, are loved of the landscape architect and the Germans. ”

“ All along by the road side I remarked the curious manner in which the Fir blossoms. Its branches produce a fresh shoot every year from their extremity; by observing the series of which shoots the age of the tree can be accurately computed. They retain their original leaves, which are needle-shaped, for three years; but when these fall the same branch never acquires any more. The male flowers, each of which is a corymbus of stamens, grow from the side of the present year's shoot, near its base; but the female ones proceed from the extreme point, and are round and red. ”

“ The thickness of the edge not more than two lines. The four planks which formed each of its sides were of root of spruce fir, each about a span broad and four lines thick. The two transverse boards or seats were of the branches of the same tree. The seams were secured obliquely with cord as thick as a goosequill.
Ice was still to be seen here and there near the shore of the river, though not in any great quantity.
The trees of this neighbourhood are principally Common Fir (Pinus sylvestris) , with a smaller proportion of Spruce (P. Abies) , and Birch. Now and then some Poplars are to be seen. ”

“ Pierre set each tree in a box of moist earth, so that it looked as thriving and fresh as it had done in the forest; first, a fir, and then a dogwood, all the way from the door to the altar, reached the gay and fragrant wall. Great masses of Linnea vines, in full bloom, hung on the walls, and big vases of Father Antoine's carnations stood in the niches, with the wax saints. The delicate odor of the roses, the Linnea blossoms, and carnations, blended with the spicy scent of the firs, and made a fragrance as strong as if it had been distilled from centuries of summer. ”

“ The sun is gilding the steeple, the air is fresh and cool, the birds are singing in the linden-trees before the old gable-houses on the market-place--nature is awaking and blooming forth in morning beauty--and men are still lying in the bonds of sleep, within their musty, oppressive chambers. ”

“ The trees still retained their foliage, but the colours changed from day to day, a marvel to behold. The leaves of the lindens became a pale yellow, those of the oaks, at first a red copper, later that colour of rust which they keep all winter, for they do not fall: shrivelled, hardened, and curled up they cling to the branches until the new growth comes in the spring and flings them down.
“They are like those feelings,” I said to Raymonde, “which remain in the heart even after they are dead, and which only a new passion has the power to drive away.” ”

“ Yes, the linden is full of sweetness, and sends out the fragrance from his blossoms in through the chamber windows, and down upon the people who pass in the street below. And he tells all the time his story of how his pink-covered leaf-buds opened in the spring mornings, and unfolded the fresh green leaves, which were so tender and full of green juices that it was no wonder the mother-moth had thought the branches a good place whereon to lay her eggs; for as soon as they should be all laid, she would die, and there would be no one to provide food for her babies when they should creep out. ”

“ In cultivation, lindens have the virtues of swift growth, superb framework, clean, smooth bark, and late, profuse, beautiful and fragrant bloom, which is followed by interesting seed clusters, winged with a pale blade that lightens the foliage mass. ”

“ It came to ancestors of the present owners a hundred years ago, and has been owned and occupied by the A. M. Feltus family for several generations.
Nature seems to exert herself to give to Linden a perfect setting. Surrounding the magnificently constructed house, with its 98 feet of gallery, are dozens of oak trees, draped in long gray moss which sweeps the very eaves of the dwelling. Standing in the artistic entrance of Linden one sees the outside world through growing draperies of swaying gray lace.
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The architecture of Linden is as unusual as it is simple. ”

“ A few orderly young lindens lifting, above the thatched roof of the neighboring court-yard, their bushy tops, almost audibly rustled their dark-green, fresh foliage, in unison with the sound of the buzzing bees. All the shadows from the covered hedge, from the lindens, and from the hives, fell dark and short on the delicate curling grass springing up between the planks. ”

“ You shall judge for yourself when I have narrated to you a few chapters from the experience of a young Bavarian botanist,—Karl Linden—while engaged in a plant-hunting expedition to the Alps of India—the stupendous mountains of the Himalaya.
Chapter Two. Karl Linden.
Karl Linden was a native of Upper Bavaria, near the Tyrolese frontier. Not high-born, for his father was a gardener; but, what is of more importance in modern days, well brought up and well educated. A gardener’s son may still be a gentleman; and so may a gardener himself, for that matter, or he may not. ”

“ Ascending, we find a scattered growth of lodge-pole, growths of Engelmann spruce, and a few white-bark pines.
The timber-line may be given as about sixty-five hundred feet, or at the same altitude as in the Alps. The extreme height of the tree growth is about one thousand feet greater. Most of the timber-line growth is crushed, flattened, and oppressed. The timber-line grouping is most poetical and picturesque. In places the [Pg 130] trees are both dwarfed and distorted with wind and snow. The trees are mountain hemlock, alpine fir, Engelmann spruce, and white-bark pine. ”

“ At last the woods are like a garden of delicate flowers, clothing the hills as far as eye can see with colors of sunrise. The red-oaks are gold color, with strong brown stems; ash and lindens are golden green; maples soft copper and bronze, or deep flesh-color.
The flower-like delicacy of leafing out is wonderfully prolonged. The willows come first, then elms, in brown flower, then quaking-asps and birches, and then maples. Later, lindens and ash-trees catch the light, and the ash leaves (which grow far apart, and in bunches, with the flower-buds) are indeed like just-alighted butterflies. ”

“ The Pine trees are observed to be more barren of branches on their north sides; hence the common people know by these trees which way the north lies. The timber lay here in abundance, entirely useless. Brandy is made from the fir, as well as from the berries of mountain ash. ”

“ Its root is chewed along with the inner bark of the Alder, and the saliva thus impregnated is applied to leather, to dye it of a red colour. Thus their harness, reins, girdles, gloves, &c. are tanned.
The extensive pine forests here grow to no use. As nobody wants timber, the trees fall and rot upon the ground. ”

“ The genus Lindleya is reminiscent to systematists of their great colleague and the name of Lindley is known and honoured by all our horticulturists. Of the man himself just so much may be said as to give form to the mind's image of him.
He was of middle height, active, upright, with shoulders somewhat sloping and of heavy tread. The sightlessness of one eye gave to his resolute face a somewhat strange look. Simple in habits, strenuous in work and perspicacious in judgment, John Lindley was a warm hearted and generous friend, particularly to young botanists. ”