EUROPEAN LIME-TREE. 46 



by him. The two beautiful rows of European hndens, in front of the state 

 house, in Philadelphia, have likewise been perforated by them, and in a year or 

 two more, they will probably fall from their prey. The same insect also is said 

 to attack the mountain ash. Various experiments have been tried to arrest 

 their course, but most of them have proved fruitless, except by crushing the in- 

 sects to death, or by destroying their eggs. 



Properties and Uses. The wood of the lime-tree, as compared with that ol 

 the oak, the ash, and other timber trees, holds but an inferior rank, and is only 

 used in such works as are not to be exposed to the alternations of moisture and 

 dryness. It is of a pale yellow, or white, close-grained, soft, light, and smooth ; 

 and, when seasoned, it is not liable to be attacked by insects. It is used by 

 pianoforie-makers, for sounding-boards, and by cabinet-makers for a variety of 

 purposes, as it does not warp under atmospheric changes. It is turned into 

 domestic utensils of various kinds, carved into toys, and turned into small boxes 

 for apothecaries. The most elegant use to which it is applied, is for carving, foi 

 which it is superior to every other wood. Many of the fine carvings in Windsor 

 Castle, Trinity College Library, at Cambridge, and in the Duke of Devonshire' s 

 mansion, at Chatsworth, are of this wood. It is said to make excellent charcoal 

 for gunpowder, even better than alder, and nearly as good as hazel, or willow. 

 Baskets and cradles were formerly made from the twigs ; and shoe-makers and 

 glovers are said to prefer planks of lime-tree for cutting the finer kinds of leather 

 upon. The leaves of this tree are collected in Sweden, Norway, Carniola, and 

 Switzerland, 'for feeding cattle ; though in Sweden, Linnaeus says, they commu- 

 nicate a bad flavour to the milk of cows. One of the most important uses of the 

 lime-tree, in the north of Europe, is that of supplying material for making ropes 

 and mats ; the latter of which enter extensively into European commerce. The 

 Russian peasants weave the bark of the young shoots for the upper parts of their 

 shoes, the bark of the trunks or large branches serving for the soles ; and they 

 also make of it, tied together with strips of the inner bark, baskets and boxes for 

 domestic purposes. The outer bark of old trees also supplies them, like that 

 of the birch, with tiles for covering their cottages. Ropes are still made of the 

 bark of this tree in Cornwall, and in some parts of Devonshire. The manufac- 

 ture of mats from the inner bark, however, is now chiefly confined to Russia, 

 and to some parts of Sweden. Trees from six to twelve inches in diameter are 

 selected at the beginning of summer, when, from the expansion produced by the 

 ascending sap, the bark parts freely from the wood. The bark is then stripped 

 from them in lengths of six to eight feet, and is afterwards steeped in water till it 

 separates freely in layers. It is then taken out, and divided into ribands or 

 strands, and hung up in the shade, generally in the forest were it grows, and, in 

 the course of the summer, is manufactured into mats, so much in use by garden- 

 ers and upholsterers, and for covering packages generally. The fishermeif of 

 Sweden make nets for catching fish, of the fibres of the inner bark, separated by 

 maceration, so as to form a kind of flax or hemp ; and the shepherds of Carniola 

 weave a coarse cloth of it, which serves for their ordinary clothing. The sap of 

 the lime-tree, drawn oif in spring, and evaporated, affords a considerable quan- 

 tity of sugar. The honey produced from the flowers is considered superior to 

 all other kinds for its delicacy, selling for three or four times the price of common 

 honey ; and it is used in the preparation of medicine, and for making particular 

 liqueurs, more especially rosoglia. This lime-tree honey is only procured at 

 the little town of Kowno, on the river Niemen, in Lithuania, which is surrounded 

 by an extensive forest of lime-trees, and where the management of the honey-bee 

 occupies the principal attention of the inhabitants. The Jews of Poland produce 

 a close imitation of this honey, by bleaching the common kind in the open air, 

 during frosty weather. The fruit of the lime-tree had long been thought of little 



