46 THE LIME. 



In the Lime, we say, the thought of this fine old habit of the classical 

 ages is awakened, and not less forcibly than that of the felicitous Greek 

 adjective ; for the lime is one especially of the feminine class of trees. 

 The oak, the elm, the chesnut, the beech, are masculine in contour 

 and quality ; the lime, the birch, the ash, are, like the acacia, no less 

 emphatically of feminine look and attributes. Wanting the light tresses 

 of the acacia, the most feminine of all trees ; wanting the white limbs 

 of the " lady-of-the-woods," the lime is still fashioned after the sweet 

 ideal which the others disclose in leaf and stem ; and if we cannot single 

 out, in a mechanical and prosaic manner, a speciality which shall at 

 once decide its claim to be placed in the feminine section, that comes 

 of the perfect manner in which the qualities of this beautiful tree are 

 intermingled and adjusted.* Is it not just so with a true woman, 

 the ultimate and crowning perfection of all those amiable features and 

 qualities which in plants and flowers have a sweet foreshining ? For 

 here the heart is appealed to and satisfied, not alone by red and white, 

 such as an artist can apply ; not alone by gentle demeanour, which may 

 be practised for the stage ; not alone either by kindly words and fair 

 courtesies and generosities, but by that matchless combination of all 

 these, and many more things, for which there is only one name, a 

 true woman. 



Botanically considered, the Lime-tree is less known as a tree of the 

 woods and forests than of parks, pleasure-grounds, and gardens. It is 

 very frequent also as an ornament of squares and open spaces in towns 

 and cities, as witness those delightful avenues past which the visitor makes 

 his way towards Bristol Cathedral. In the woods, however, occurs, 

 and in some parts of England very abundantly, a form of this tree with 

 much smaller and thicker leaves, the green of which is at the same time 

 considerably darker, and which is usually distinguished by authors as 

 the Tilia parvifolia, the lime of the park and garden bearing the 

 name of Tilia Europaa. In gardens and arboretums is likewise met 

 with a third form, technically distinguished as the Tilia yrandifolin, 

 the leaves being very considerably larger, 'and remarkably pale and 

 downy upon the under-surface. Whether these three forms be distinct 

 " species," let those pronounce who can define what a species is. It is 

 sufficient for all ordinary and useful purposes to regard them as strongly - 



* In speakiiig of the Lime as a " feminine '' tree, of course we do not mean that, 

 like the female plants of willows and poplars, it is female in sex. Every blossom, 

 and consequently every individual tree, is in the most perfect sense bisexual, every 

 blossoai having its own pistil and many stamens. 



