94 THE LIME. 



terised is miscalled ; it is decay, and not vitality 

 the grave that is ahead, and not the fruitage life 

 was always intended to receive. Think back only 

 the last seven years of your existence ! Can he who 

 during the lapse of those seven years has not gained 

 alike in faith in the Infinite "Wisdom and Goodness, 

 in love of the beautiful in God's works and the 

 human heart, in the estimation of his friends, and in 

 his own self-respect, be said to have lived ? I trow 

 not. Changes he must needs have experienced, but 

 changes that do not elevate must needs degrade. 



The Leaves of the linden form one of its prime cha- 

 racteristics. They are simple and undivided, in gene- 

 ral outline roundish, but with the extremity long 

 drawn-out, and at the base remarkably unsymmetri- 

 cal. While in the elm the two portions separated by 

 the midrib spring from different points, here, in the 

 lime, they spring from the same point, but one 

 portion is much larger than the other, and a curve 

 is produced backwards, or in the direction of 

 the petiole. Hence we get in the lime-tree the 

 first example of that elegant configuration which 

 culminates in the leaves of the Begonias, and in 

 the leaflets of the plants called Epimedium : so 

 does nature always announce beforehand that which 

 by-and-by she intends to show forth illustriously. 

 Everything below the highest form is a prelude 

 and a proem ; the melody tried first in a minor 

 key. The stalks which sustain the leaves are longer 



