114 THE LINDEN-TREE. 



the dark-colored branches, and an outline regular and 

 symmetrical without formality. When covered with 

 leaves, it bears some resemblance in outward form to the 

 maple, but surpasses it, when leafless, in the beauty of its 

 ramification. The leaves are roundish heart-shaped, of a' 

 clear and lively green in summer, but acquiring a spotted 

 and rusty look in autumn, and adding nothing to the 

 splendors of that season. In the spring, however, no tree 

 of our forest displays a more beautiful verdure before it 

 acquires the uniform dark green of the summer woods. 



The branches of the Lime have a very dark-colored 

 surface, distinguishing it from other trees that agree 

 with it in size and general appearance. The bark of 

 the maple, for example, is light and of an ashen-gray 

 tint, and that of the poplars a sort of greenish clay- 

 color. This dark hue renders the spray of the Lime 

 very conspicuous, after a shower, and in spring, when all 

 the leaves are of a light and brilliant green ; but these 

 incidental beauties are not very lasting. The branches, 

 being alternate, are very minutely subdivided, and their 

 extremities neatly drawn inwards, so that in a denuded 

 state it is one of our finest winter ornaments. The spray 

 of the beech is more airy, that of the elm more flowing, 

 and that of the oak more curiously netted and inter- 

 woven ; but the spray of the Lime is remarkable for its 

 freedom from all defect. 



George Barnard, who, being a painter, looks upon trees 

 as they are more or less adapted to his own art, re- 

 marks : 



" When young, or indeed up to an age perhaps of sixty 

 or seventy years, the Lime has a formal appearance, with 

 little variation in its masses of foliage; but let some 

 accident occur, such as the breaking down of a large 

 branch, or the removal of a neighboring tree, it then 

 presents a charming picture." 



