American species sometimes found in cultivation: _Tilia pubescens, Ait._, is distinguished from _Americana_ by its smaller, thinner leaves and densely pubescent shoots. _Tilia heterophylla, Vent._, is easily recognized by the pale or silver white under-surface of the leaves. There are several European species more or less common in cultivation, indiscriminately known in nurseries as _Tilia Europaea_. They are all easily distinguished from the American species by the absence of petal-like scales. [Illustration: PLATE LXXVIII.--Tilia Americana.] 1. Winter buds. 2. Flowering branch. 3. Flower enlarged. 4. Pistil with cluster of stamens, petaloid scale, petal, and sepal. 5. Fruiting branch. CORNACEAE. DOGWOOD FAMILY. =Cornus florida, L.= FLOWERING DOGWOOD. BOXWOOD. =Habitat and Range.=--Woodlands, rocky hillsides, moist, gravelly ridges. Provinces of Quebec and Ontario. Maine,--Fayette Ridge, Kennebec county; New Hampshire,--along the Atlantic coast and very near the Connecticut river, rarely farther north than its junction with the West river; Vermont,--southern and southwestern sections, rare; Massachusetts,--occasional throughout the state, common in the Connecticut river valley, frequent eastward; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--common. South to Florida; west to Minnesota and Texas. =Habit.=--A small tree, 15-30 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 6-10 inches. The spreading branches form an open, roundish head, the young twigs curving upwards at their extremities. In spring, when decked with its abundant, showy white blossoms, it is the fairest of the minor trees of the forest; in autumn, scarcely less beautiful in the rich reds of its foliage and fruit. =Bark.=--Bark of trunk in old trees blackish, broken-ridged, rough, often separating into small, firm, 4-angled or roundish plates; branches grayish, streaked with white lines; season's twigs purplish-green, downy; taste bitter. =Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Terminal leaf-buds narrowly conical, acute; flower-buds spherical or vertically flattened, grayish. Leaves simple, opposite, 3-5 inches long, two-thirds as wide, dark green above, whitish beneath, turning to reds, purples, and yellows in the autumn, ovate to oval, nearly smooth, with minute appressed pubescence on both surfaces; apex pointed; base acutish; veins distinctly indented above, ribs curving upward and parallel; leafstalk short-grooved.