The British Flora: Tilia

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1. TILIA Linn. Lime-Tree.

Cal. 5-partite. Pet. 5, with or without a nectary at the base. Ovary 5-celled; cells with 2 ovules. Fruit 1-celled, 1–2-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 glabrous except a woolly tuft in the axils of the nerves and veins beneath, 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, 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. Europæa L. [2] (common L. or Linden-tree); nectaries none, leaves twice the length of the foot-stalks quite glabrous except a woolly tuft in the axils of the nerves and veins 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 nerves an dveins 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. England and Ireland. Blair 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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