The Lime. 191 



then packed in small kegs of about seven pounds weight. 

 The import is perhaps exclusively from Brazil. Another 

 very elegant mode of preserving the lime is to remove 

 the pulp, then dry the rind, and encrust it with sugar, 

 thus creating a sweetmeat that the gods might envy. 



The Lime-tree gardens, par excellence, of the world are 

 contained in the little island of Montserrat, one of the 

 most charming and salubrious of the British West Indian 

 colonies. The area is but forty-seven square miles, or 

 considerably less than that of London, yet from this 

 circumstance alone the seat upon it of the lime it may 

 be regarded as almost priceless. The plantations, ten 

 years ago, covered over six hundred acres of land, the 

 trees numbering about a hundred and twenty thousand. 

 To what degree the cultivation has been extended there 

 is yet no report, but doubtless it has been steadily 

 progressive, and there seems no reason why the entire 

 island should not be devoted to this most important and 

 rewarding industry. No sight more beautiful can be 

 imagined, so we are told by visitors to Montserrat, than 

 these lime-tree orchards when laden with their bright 

 fruit, the glow being, if possible, even more brilliant than 

 that of the orange-groves of southern Europe. The 

 atmosphere, at the same time, is loaded with the luscious 

 fragrance of the bloom. Even the leaves of the lime are 

 so aromatic that they are commonly used throughout the 

 West Indies to perfume the water in the finger-glasses of 

 the dinner-table, and for toilet purposes of similar kind. 

 The production of fruit is very large. When ripe, the 



