THE LIME. EXPLANATION OF CUT.-a, perfect flower. b, stamina. c, petal, stamen, pistil. d, transverse suggested the name. It seems now the fashion to doubt whether the lime has any title to rank as a native of Britain; and if we apply to it the test which Daines Barrington has laid down, by which to ascertain whether a tree is indigenous or not, we shall certainly be compelled to relinquish it. He states, that the trees indigenous to any country, grow in large and extended masses, and ripen their seeds kindly, which spontaneously spring up beneath them; and applying this test, positively rejects the lime, as well as the sweet chestnut, elm, and box. Yet sir J. E. Smith, as well as Ray, and many other writers, have stated the various places in which both the broad and small-leaved varieties have been found growing wild. It is particularly mentioned that, near Shawley, in the neighbourhood of Worcester, is a wood, five hundred acres in extent, remote from any old dwelling or pub section of the capsule. e, seed. f, winged petiole lic road, in which the principal under of the flowers. "The stately lime, smooth, gentle, straight, and (With which no other Dryad can compare,) LINNEAN ARRANGEMENT. Polyandria Monogynia. Calyx inferior, deeply divided into five equal deciduous segments. Petals five, inversely eggshaped, obtuse, spreading, with, usually a small scale on the inner surface at the base. Filaments numerous, threadlike, attached to the receptacle. Anthers two lobed. Germen, globular, hairy; style, thread-shaped and erect, nearly as long as the stamens; stigma with five obtuse angles. Capsule woolly, roundish, five celled, with one or two seeds in each cell. A large and handsome tree with smooth spreading branches. Leaves heartshaped at the base, smooth, serrated, acutely pointed. Flowers greenish white colour, in loose panicled cymes; flower stalks axillar, each united for half its length with an oblong pale smooth leaflike bractea. Blossoms in June and July. growth is the T. E. microphylla. It is undoubtedly a native of Germany, Russia, and Sweden, which lie yet further north than many parts of our island; yet, the summers in those countries, though shorter, are much warmer than our own, and the lime there ripens its seeds every year, which it rarely does in England. Evelyn considered the lime as a native tree, though he laments that, in his day, it was so little known and cultivated. "We send commonly for this tree into Flanders and Holland, which indeed grows not so naturally wild with us, to our excessive cost, while our woods do, in some places, spontaneously produce them; and though of a somewhat smaller leaf, yet, altogether, is good, and apt to be civilized and made more florid: from thence I have received many of their berries, so as it is a shameful negligence that we are not better provided with nurseries of a tree so choice and universally acceptable." Nor is this energetic lamentation less appropriate to the present day. Even now, it is much less cultivated among us, than in many parts of the continent; though its elegant form, and rich-spreading foliage, combined with the numerous purposes to which its products can be applied, seem to blend in it, the useful with the agreeable. Pliny speaks of THE lime, or linden, "the most beautiful, graceful, and fragrant of our native trees,' was well known to the ancient Romans, and is found in most parts of Europe. Several different species of this tree have been enumerated; but Mr. Loudon, one of the most recent and able authorities on the subject, is disposed to class them all as so many different varieties of the Tilia Europea, only differing in the size of the leaves. The botanical name some have derived from the Greek word ptilon, a feather; and others from tilai, light bodies floating in the air: in either case, the buoyant floral bracteas, so peculiar to this tree, would seem to have And though the abundant and varied "Lime trees for a thousand uses sought." 2 B products of our woods and forests, may | mer's evening, the perfume they emit is have partly naturalized some of its pro- fragrant beyond expression, almost to an perties, we shall have reason to observe, overpowering degree. that it still deserves, and might with truth receive the same epithet. "The lime, at dewy eve diffusing odours." COWPER. "Clear was the song from Philomel's far bower; Grateful the incense of the lime-tree bower." KEATS. These blossoms spring in a cluster from a large leaf-like bractea, of the same pale hue as their own, which contributes, in no slight degree, to the peculiar effect of the summer appearance of the tree. These are rich in honey, and hence during the season, the lime tree is thronged by myriads of bees, whose buzzing murmurs, though low in the scale of nature's melody, yet soothe, In external appearance, however, it does and will always hold an unrivalled place in our ornamental plantations; and now, as in the days of Evelyn, "it is of all others the most proper and beautiful for walks, as producing an upright body, smooth and even bark, ample leaf, sweet blossom, the delight of bees, and a goodly shade at the distance of eighteen or twenty feet. Besides its unparalleled beauty for walks, its other perfections are, that it will grow in almost all grounds; that it lasts long; that it soon heals its scars; that it affects upright-refresh, and cheer the wanderer's ear, ness; that it stoutly resists a storm; that as they blend in sweet harmony with it seldom becomes hollow." And who the never-ceasing choir of praise, which will not assent to the truth of this spirited ascends from nature up to nature's eulogium of the enthusiastic biographer God. The honey obtained from the of our Sylva? who that knows it does flowers of the lime is said to be the not love the linden tree? Whether we finest in the world. The little town contemplate it overarching, with its mag- of Kowno, in Lithuania, is surrounded nificent and refreshing foliage, the lofty by forests of lime trees, and is famous vista of the long-drawn avenue; or for the honey exported thence, which see it, when standing singly on a fetches a price double that even of the lawn, where its luxuriant, pendulous, Narbonne honey. So valuable is it yet recurved branches, supporting a considered from its extreme purity and mass of glossy foliage, it forms a leafy delicacy, that it is solely used for medome, is it not pre-eminent in beauty? dicinal purposes, and in the manuIn spring time, though comparatively facture of some sorts of liqueurs, more late in leafing, how bright and lovely especially that called rosoglia. It is said the tinge of its young buds as they that the Jews of Poland obtain a someemerge from the russet robes in which what similar flavour, by bleaching the they have been closely folded, and common honey in the open air in frosty casting down their rosy tinged sheaths, weather. expand their delicate and tender leaves before the genial breath of April. In summer, like a verdant pavilion, it extends its grateful shade of "cool green light;" within which all is tranquil and refreshing to the languid frame and overpowered senses, being hung with a drapery fresh from nature's incomparable loom, of verdant glossy green, wreathed with the odorous masses of its thickly studded pale and sweet-scented flowers. Even the ruthless gales of winter do but display, more clearly, the elegant symmetry of its tall graceful trunk, regular and tapering branches, smooth glossy twigs, and russet buds prepared for another season of expansion and beauty. The fruit of the linden tree, when mixed with the flowers, produces a paste not unlike that of cocoa. This was discovered by Missa, a French physician, but it was little valued by his countrymen, who imported the real cocoa extensively from their colonies. Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, feeling a greater interest in the subject than the French could do, caused further experiments to be made, which established the excellence of the paste produced; but as it was found not to keep well, the manufacture was linquished. re The wood of the lime tree being peculiarly smooth, close grained, and The flowers of this tree are very of a delicate light colour, yet soft, easily abundant, and larger than those of most cut, very durable, and not liable to other timber trees. They are highly the attacks of insects, has been long odoriferous; and in a fine calm sum-appropriated to the purposes of carving. DODSLEY. "One circumstance," observes Gilpin, "should recommend the lime to all lovers of the imitative arts. No wood is so easily formed under the carver's chisel. It is the wood which the ingenious Gibbons selected, after making trial of several kinds, as the most proper for that curious sculpture, which adorns some of the old houses of our nobility." Evelyn claims to himself the honour of being the first who recommended this ingenious artist to king Charles II. Some of the finest specimens of this style of ornament are to be seen at Chatsworth, the princely residence of the duke of Devonshire, though it is found in most of the noble buildings or churches erected at that period. Horace Walpole observed of Gibbons, that "he was the first artist who gave to wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, and chained together the various productions of the elements with a free disorder natural to each species." The elegant and ornamental art of carving has latterly fallen in disuse; but the qualities of the lime remain unchanged, and now, as in the days of Evelyn, "architects make with it models for their designed buildings." It is also used by carvers and gilders in their ornamented picture frames, and at iron foundries, the ornaments for the fronts of stoves, etc., are all first cut in lime wood. The wooden blocks used by Holbein in wood engravings, it is believed, were of lime. It is now principally used by the turner for various domestic articles; and being peculiarly free from any tendency to warp, it is used by musical instrument makers for the keys and sounding boards of pianofortes. Though very fine in the grain, it does not blunt the tool; and shoemakers and glovers prefer it to any other wood for their cutting boards, The inner fibres of the Linden bark are peculiarly strong, and well adapted to be woven into matting, or twisted into cordage. The former manufacture is chiefly confined to some parts of Russia and Scandinavia, where the lime tree abounds in the forests. The trunk being remarkably straight, and free from knots, the bark is stripped from it in pieces from six to eight feet in length, at the beginning of the summer, when the sap is rising, and it is easily divided from the tree. These are steeped in water till the fibres are separated, they are designated as bast, and woven by the peasants into those coarse mats, which are so generally used by gardeners, upholsterers, etc. Large quantities of them are annually brought into England, as wrappers to the bales of hemp and flax which we import fron the Baltic, to the amount of many thousand hundredweights. The ropes and cordage also manufactured from these fibres, are remarkably strong and elastic, and are said to improve by exposure to damp and wet, which swells and unites the particles of which they are composed. They are still made in Cornwall and the west of England, and also in Lincolnshire, where the tree is commonly known by the name of bast. In Sweden, the fishermen construct their fishing nets of these fibres. To the Russian boor, the lime tree is as valuable and useful as the birch to the Laplander or Swede, supplying by its products almost all his few and simple wants. Hence he procures timber to build, or twigs to wattle his hut, tiles for its roof, the basket work that forms his sledges from the outer bark, and from the inner fibrous one, ropes and matting for various purposes. The timber, too, furnishes the material of all his domestic utensils, fishing boat, etc., or is burned into excellent potash, while beneath the shelter of the growing trees he suspends his hives, and thus increases the value of their luscious produce. But the principal and peculiar use made of the lime tree in Russia, and for the sake of which hundreds of young trees are annually sacrificed, is, that it is the sole material used in fabricating the sabots or wooden shoes of the peasantry. The outer bark forms the sole, the fibres of the rind platted, the upper leathers. Mr. Tooke, in his able work on the Russian empire, strongly censures the impolicy of this custom, as costing in fact more than the value of leathern shoes, and tending eventually to destroy the forests. From two to four young linden stems required to every pair of shoes; and these rarely last longer than ten, and in the working season scarcely four days. In the whole year, therefore, at the are 66 re lowest computation, a single peasant | they overcome the effluvia that otherwears out fifty pairs of shoes, to make wise would naturally result in the neighwhich one hundred and fifty young bourhood of much stagnant water. stems have been destroyed. The tree undoubtedly grows faster for cutting; yet a fresh linden shoot is not fit for peeling previous to being made up, under at least three years. The smooth interior side of the outer bark, supplied the ancient Romans with tablets for writing on. Evelyn mentions one, containing an unpublished work of Cicero, preserved in the library at Vienna, which the emperor had purchased from cardinal Mazarine for 8000 ducats. Within a few years, some ingenious experiments were made by M. Schäffer, to manufacture paper from various substances; that made from the bark of the lime was of a reddish brown colour, and so smooth as to be peculiarly adapted for drawing paper. The leaves of the lime, as well as those of many other trees, were used by the Romans as winter fodder for their cattle; they are still collected for the same purpose in Sweden, Norway, Carniola, Switzerland, etc., though Linneus says they communicate an unpleasant flavour to the milk. The garlands of flowers with which the ancients were accustomed to crown themselves at their convivial entertainments, were in general artfully bound together with strips of the linden rind. Thus Horace says, "Ribands from the linden tree Give a wreath no charms for me." The lime is well adapted for planting in public walks and avenues in cities, as it bears clipping remarkably well, and is little injured either by smoke or the violence of the winds. Those in St. James's Park are said to have been planted at the suggestion of Evelyn, with a view to the improvement of the air in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. It was about the same period adopted on the continent as a favourite tree for avenues and walks, in preference to the horse chestnut, which had been previously used for the purpose; and thus by the avenue before the chateau we may often ascertain the date of its erection. In Holland, these plantations by the sides of the canals are yet more abundant; and during the summer months, the whole country is perfumed by their blossoms, which are beneficial, as The "The berries," says Evelyn, duced to powder, cure the dysentery, and stop bleeding at the nose. distilled water is good against the epilepsy, apoplexy, vertigo, trembling of the heart, and gravel.' Schroder commends a mucilage of the bark for wounds. “I am told," he adds, “that the juice of the leaves fixes colours." The lime tree will grow in any light soil; but in a good, loamy, moist soil, the rapidity of its growth is scarcely credible. The finest specimen in England, is that at Moor Park, in Hertfordshire, of which Mr. Strutt gives a picture. It stands on a little eminence at the end of a stately row of lime trees, which bound one side of the park, extending more than three quarters of a mile. "They are all lofty, and some of larger girth than this, but none equal it in luxuriance of shade and redundancy of branches, nineteen of which almost rivalling the parent stem, have, at about nine feet from the ground, struck out in horizontal lines to the length of from sixty-seven to seventyone feet, and from six to eight feet in circumference, bearing again in their turn three or four upright limbs, like so many young trees, and reminding the beholder of prosperous colonies, at once supported by, and adding to the importance of their mother country. The age of this tree is not exactly known; but at this period it is in the most vigorous state of luxurious growth, and has every promise of attaining a yet larger size. Its circumference at the ground is twenty-three feet, its branches extend one hundred and twentytwo in diameter, and cover three hundred and sixty feet in circumference. It is nearly one hundred feet, and contains by actual measurement, eight hundred and seventy-five feet of saleable timber. It must have been some such object,' adds the author, "that suggested to the fervid imagination of Milton his beautiful description of the fig tree," or banyan of the Hindoos. Such as at this day (to Indians known In Malabar or Deccan,) spreads her arms Brauching so broad and long, that in the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade, High, over arched, and echoing walks between. MILTON. This peculiarity of growth, which not improbably suggested the idea of propagating plants by layers, is not uncommon to this tree. At Knowle, is another immense lime tree, which, twenty years ago, covered with its shade nearly a quarter of an acre of ground. The lower branches, which extended some distance from the trunk, having rested their extremities on the ground, had taken root and sent up a circle of young trees. These, in their turn, had also rested on the soil, taken root and thrown up a second circle of trees, at that time from twenty to thirty feet high. At Crompton, in Warwickshire, is a magnificent tree between sixty and seventy feet in height: the trunk measures fifteen feet in girth at four feet from the ground, and between nine and twelve feet divides into six upright branches. Evelyn mentions a lime tree growing at Depeham, in Norfolk, which, if the account be credible, must have far exceeded any we now can boast. "The compass, in the least part of the body, about two yards from the ground, is at least eight yards and a half; about the root, near the earth, sixteen yards; about half a yard above that, near twelve yards in circuit; the height of the uppermost boughs about thirty yards." He also describes "the linden of Schalouse, in Switzerland, under which is a bower composed of its branches, capable of containing three hundred persons sitting at ease: it has a fountain set about with many tables, formed only of the boughs, to which they ascend by steps, all kept so very accurately, and so very thick, that the sun never looks into it. But this is nothing to that prodigious Tilia of Neustadt, in the duchy of Wirtemberg, so famous for its monstrosity, that even the city itself received a denomination from it, being called by the Germans, Neustadt under grossen linden, or Neustadt by the great lime tree. The circumference of the trunk is twenty-seven feet, four fingers; the extent of the boughs about four hundred and three feet: set about with divers columns and monuments of stone, (eighty-two in number at present, and formerly above one hundred more,) which several princes and noble persons have adorned and celebrated with inscriptions, arms, and devices, and which, as so many pillars, serve likewise to support the umbrageous and venerable boughs; and that even the tree had been much ampler, the ruins and distances of the columns declare, which the rude soldiers have greatly impaired." Of several of these inscriptions he gives us copies, which prove that it must have been "a goodly tree," even in the year 1530, the date of the earliest recorded. He also mentions a linden tree, "at Cleves, in the Low Countries, a little without the entrance into the town, cut in eight faces, supported with pillars, and containing a room in the middle." The Neustadt_lime tree is yet standing; the girth of the trunk is now fifty-four feet, and about one hundred in height. The branches, which do not divide till fifteen feet from the ground, extend nearly one hundred feet on each side of the trunk; they are supported by one hundred and eight pillars, some of wood and others of stone. The head of the tree has been formed into a place for public entertainment, and is reached by a flight of steps. Gooseberry trees are planted in the hollows, formed by decayed branches, and the fruit is sold to visitors. Some most interesting lime trees, now standing, are in Switzerland, and are identified with the history of the hard, yet successful struggle for independence, which was maintained by those hardy patriots against the Austrian oppressors of their country. In the public square at Friburg is a lime, which was planted on the day that the victory gained in the defiles of Morgarten, over the duke of Burgundy's army in 1476, was publicly announced: this uncostly monument is a remarkable instance of the poverty of the republic, and the simplicity of their ancient manners. The branches are now carefully propped, though the circumference of the tree does not exceed fourteen feet. In the neighbouring village of Villers en Morig, is a yet more ancient tree, recorded as existing before the battle of Morat, and supposed to be little short of one thousand years. Yet it was, a few years ago, in good condition; seventy feet high, and the girth of the trunk, at four feet from the ground, thirty-six feet. The tree of Trons in the Grisons, beneath which the little band of patriots took the oath to free their country from the yoke of their oppressors, is celebrated in all their popular ballads as a linden tree, though, in fact, it is a sycamore. This |