[*][*] Escaped from gardens or grounds.
H. Triònum, L. (Bladder Ketmia.) A low, rather hairy annual; upper leaves 3-parted, with lanceolate divisions, the middle one much the longest; fruiting calyx inflated, membranaceous, 5-winged; corolla sulphur-yellow with a blackish eye, ephemeral; hence the name flower-of-an-hour. (Adv. from Eu.)
H. Syrìacus, L. (Shrubby Althæa of gardeners.) Tall shrub, smooth; leaves wedge-ovate, pointed, cut-toothed or lobed; corolla usually rose-color.—Escaped rarely from cultivation, Penn., etc. Sept. (Adv. from Eu.)
Order 21. TILIÀCEÆ. (Linden Family.)
Trees (rarely herbs), with the mucilaginous properties, fibrous bark, valvate calyx, etc., of the Mallow Family; but the sepals deciduous, petals imbricated in the bud, the stamens usually polyadelphous, and the anthers 2-celled. Represented in Northern regions only by the genus,
1. TÍLIA, Tourn. Linden. Basswood.
Sepals 5. Petals 5, spatulate-oblong. Stamens numerous; filaments cohering in 5 clusters with each other (in European species), or with the base of a spatulate petal-like body placed opposite each of the real petals. Pistil with a 5-celled ovary, and 2 half-anatropous ovules in each cell, a single style, and a 5-toothed stigma. Fruit dry and woody, indehiscent-globular, becoming 1-celled and 1–2-seeded. Embryo in hard albumen; cotyledons broad and thin, 5-lobed, crumpled.—Fine trees, with soft and white wood, very fibrous and tough inner bark, more or less heart-shaped and serrate alternate leaves (oblique and often truncate at the base), deciduous stipules, and small cymes of flowers, hanging on an axillary peduncle which is united to a ligulate membranaceous bract. Flowers cream-color, honey-bearing, fragrant. (The classical Latin name.)
1. T. Americàna, L. (Basswood.) Leaves large, green and glabrous or nearly so, thickish; floral bract usually tapering at base; fruit ovoid.—Rich woods. May, June.—Here rarely called Lime-tree, oftener White-wood, commonly Basswood; the latter name now obsolete in England.
2. T. pubéscens, Ait. Leaves smaller (2–3´ long), thinner, and rather pubescent beneath; floral bract usually rounded at base; fruit globose, smaller (3´´ broad). (T. Americana, var. pubescens, Man.)—N. Y. to Fla., and westward.
3. T. heterophýlla, Vent. (White Basswood.) Leaves larger, smooth and bright green above, silvery-whitened with a fine down underneath.—Mountains of Penn. to S. Ill., and southward.
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. Represented by the genus,
1. LÌNUM, Tourn. Flax.
Sepals (persistent), petals, stamens, and styles 5, regularly alternate with each other. Pod of 5 united carpels (into which it splits in dehiscence) and 5-celled, with 2 seeds hanging from the summit of each cell, which is partly or completely divided into two by a false partition projecting from the back of the carpel, the pod thus becoming 10-celled. Seeds anatropous, mucilaginous, flattened, containing a large embryo with plano-convex cotyledons.—Herbs, with tough fibrous bark, simple and sessile entire leaves (alternate or often opposite), without stipules, but often with glands in their place, and with corymbose or panicled flowers. Corolla usually ephemeral. (The classical name of the Flax.)
[*] Flowers rather small, yellow; glabrous, 1–2° high.
1. L. Virginiànum, L. Stem erect from the base and with the corymbose spreading or recurving branches terete and even; no stipular glands; leaves oblong or lanceolate, or the lower spatulate and often opposite; flowers scattered, small (barely 3´´ long); sepals ovate, pointed, smooth-edged or nearly so, equalling the depressed 10-celled pod; styles distinct.—Dry woods; common.—Root apparently annual; but the plant propagates by suckers from the base of the stem.
L. Floridànum, Trelease, of rather stricter habit and the pods broadly ovate and obtuse, appears to have been found in S. Ill.
2. L. striàtum, Walt. Stems gregarious, erect or ascending from a creeping or decumbent base, slightly viscid, and with the mostly racemose short branches striate with about 4 sharp wing-like angles decurrent from the leaves; these broader than in the last, and mostly oblong, usually with all the lower ones opposite; flowers more crowded; sepals scarcely equalling the very small subglobose brownish pod; otherwise nearly as n. 1.—Wet or boggy grounds, E. Mass. to Lakes Ontario and Huron, Ill., and southward.
3. L. sulcàtum, Riddell. Stem strictly erect from an annual root, and with the upright or ascending branches wing-angled or grooved; leaves alternate, linear, acute, the upper subulate and glandular-serrulate; a pair of dark glands in place of stipules; sepals ovate-lanceolate and sharp-pointed, strongly 3-nerved and with rough-bristly-glandular margins, scarcely longer than the ovoid-globose incompletely 10-celled pod; styles united almost to the middle.—Dry soils, E. Mass. to Minn., and southwestward.—Flowers and pods twice as large as in the preceding.
4. L. rígidum, Pursh. Glaucous, sometimes slightly puberulent, often low and cespitose, the rigid branches angled; leaves narrow, erect, usually with stipular glands; flowers large; sepals lanceolate, glandular-serrulate; styles united; capsule ovoid, 5-valved.—Minn. to Kan., and southward.
[*][*] Flowers large, blue.
5. L. perénne, L., var. Lewísii, Eat. & Wright. Perennial, glabrous and glaucous, 1–3° high; leaves linear, acute; flowers rather few on long peduncles; sepals obtuse or acutish, not glandular-serrulate; styles distinct; pod ovate.—Minn. to Neb., and westward. (Eu., Asia.)
L. usitatíssimum, L. (Common Flax.) Annual; stem corymbosely branched at top; sepals acute, ciliate.—Occasionally spontaneous in fields. (Adv. from Eu.)
Order 23. GERANIÀCEÆ. (Geranium Family.)
Plants (chiefly herbs) with perfect and generally symmetrical hypogynous flowers; the stamens, counting sterile filaments, as many or commonly twice as many, and the lobes or cells (1–few-ovuled) of the ovary as many, as the sepals, the axis of the dry fruit persisting.—Seeds without albumen except in Oxalis. Flowers mostly 5-merous and the sepals usually distinct. Leaves never punctate. An order not easily defined, and including several strongly marked tribes or suborders which have been regarded by many botanists as distinct.
Tribe I. GERANIEÆ. (Geranium Family proper.) Flowers regular, 5-merous, the sepals imbricate in the bud, persistent. Glands of the disk 5, alternate with the petals. Stamens somewhat united. Ovary deeply lobed; carpels 5, 2-ovuled, 1-seeded, separating elastically with their long styles, when mature, from the elongated axis. Cotyledons plicate, incumbent on the radicle.—Herbs (our species) with more or less lobed or divided leaves, stipules, and astringent roots.
1. Geranium. Stamens with anthers 10, rarely 5. The recurving bases of the styles or tails of the carpels in fruit naked inside.
2. Erodium. Stamens with anthers only 5. Tails of the carpels in fruit bearded inside, often spirally twisted.
Tribe II. LIMNÁNTHEÆ. Flowers regular, 3-merous (in Flœrkea), the persistent sepals valvate. Glands alternate with the petals. Stamens distinct. Carpels nearly distinct, with a common