WOOD SORREL 27 
This tree was held in veneration, and superstitious people might 
formerly often be seen carrying sickly children to a forest for the 
purpose of dragging them through the holes so commonly to be found 
in this tree. 
Garlands of flowers were tied with bark of the lime at banquets in 
the old days to prevent intoxication, 
“Nay, nay, my boy, ’t is not for me 
This studious pomp of Eastern luxury. 
Give me no various garlands fine 
With linden twine, 
Nor seek where latest lingering flows 
The solitary rose.” 
The inner bark or bast is used for matting in the garden, and, 
imported from Archangel, it is called Russian. The wood was used 
formerly in the days of wood engraving for wood blocks, and Holbein’s 
work is said to have been done with lime blocks. The box is now 
very largely used in its place. Honey made by insects from this tree 
is said to be the best honey. The wood is used for turned bowls 
and dishes and pill-boxes. Baskets and cradles are made from the 
twigs. The bark was once used for writing tablets, and also rope. 
Formerly leather was cut on planks of the lime. 
The Lime was formerly used largely in wood carving. Gibbons 
executed much good work in it, to be seen in churches and else- 
where, e.g. St. Paul’s, Trinity College library, Cambridge, Chatsworth 
Hall. 
Sugar is made from the sap. 
EssENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS :— 
65. Tilia vulearis, Hayne.—Tall tree, leaves large, glabrous, with 
woolly tufts in axils of veins beneath, flowers yellow, in a cyme, with 
an oblong, leafy bract, fruit not ribbed, downy. 
Wood Sorrel (Oxalis Acetosella, L.) 
Seeds have been found in late Glacial beds at Edinburgh, and in 
Neolithic beds there and in Essex. The North and Arctic Temperate 
Zones describe its limit, the plant occurring in Arctic Europe, North 
Africa, N. and W. Asia to the Himalayas, and N. America. It is 
found in most parts of Great Britain, but not in Hunts, Cardigan, 
South Lines, Mid Lancs, Shetlands, elsewhere as far north as the 
Orkneys. It ascends to nearly 4ooo ft. in the Highlands. It is found 
in Ireland and in the Channel Islands. 
