Genus Tilia, L. (Basswood)

Leaves - simple/alternate; edge somewhat irregularly very sharp-toothed. Outline - rounded, often very one-sided. Apex - pointed. Base - strongly heart-shaped. Leaf - usually about three to four inches wide, four to five inches long; sometimes much larger; rather thick, very smooth and shining above; with small tufts of reddish hairs in the angles of the ribs below; and often with the ribs themselves hairy. Bark - of the trunk very thick; on the young branches dark brown. Fruit - gray-downy, ovate, the size of small peas, clustered on a long stem of which the lower half is joined to half the length of a narrow, leaf-like bract, usually with a tapering base. Found - in rich woods, from British America southward to Virginia and along the Alleghany Mountains and westward. General Information - A straight-trunked tree, sixty to eighty feet high (often unbranching to half its height) and two to four feet in diameter. Its very tough inner bark is used for mats and coarse rope. The wood is white and soft and clear of knots. It is much used for wooden ware, in cabinet-work, and for the paneling of carriages, though now less esteemed than the tulip tree for these uses, owing to its liability to crack in bending.

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