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THALAMIFLOR/E 73 
before the stigma and prevent the flower from being 
self-pollinated, being also longer than the petals, 
curving outwards. Insects settle on them or upon 
the stigma or between them and so carry pollen from 
one tree to another. Bees and flies are the chief 
visitors. 
It is said that the seed does not often ripen in this 
country, but this has been said of the Common Elm 
and is not strictly correct. 
The parachute or aeroplane-like bract carries the 
seed away upon the breeze to a considerable distance 
from the tree, whose branches, at first bent upwards, 
then outwards, finally bend down and afford wide and 
rainproof shelter beneath their umbrageous canopy. 
Though Pliny gave the name “ Tilia,” there are 
some old vernacular names that might equally have 
given origin to it, such as Teile, Til, Tile, Tilet Tree, 
Tillet, Tillet-tree. It is also called Lenten, Lime- 
tree, Lin, Linde, Line, White Wood. 
Superstitious folk used to venerate the lime and 
carry their children to those in which there were 
holes to drag them through. The bark of the lime 
was used to tie garlands up with in the old days of 
banquetting. 
The last name cited above gives a clue to its 
character. And it is owing to this that it is somuch 
used in joinery. Formerly light bowls, dishes, boxes, 
were turned from lime wood. Baskets and cradles 
are made from the twigs. Writing tablets were made 
from the bark. 
