96 THE LIME. 



Next, as to the Flowers. These, in the linden, 

 differ materially from those of trees which bear cat- 

 kins, and correspond closely with such blossoms as 

 those of the apple and pear, wanting only in gaiety 

 of tint. A glorious spectacle is it to go beneath a 

 linden in full flower, and look up. This is the only 

 way in which its amazing wealth of bloom can be 

 discovered and understood, for such is the disposi- 

 tion of the foliage and of the flower-peduncles, that 

 at a little distance the tree seems to be no more 

 than dappled or variegated; viewed, on the other 

 hand, from below, it is a very heaven of fragrant 

 honey-cups. That favoured characteristic of the 

 violet which has made this flower, with the poets, 

 the emblem of modesty, is not more marked in the 

 little hedge-bank blossom than in the deep-hearted 

 and lady-like linden, which surpasses, too, all trees 

 that grow in England in benevolence to the bees. 

 Who, in regard to this, does not remember the good 

 old (Ebalian in Virgil ? " Here planting among the 

 shrubs, white lilies, , vervain, and esculent poppies, 

 he equalled, in his contented mind, the wealth of 

 kings. The first was he to pluck the rose of spring, 

 and the first to gather the fruits of autumn ; and 

 even when sad winter split the rocks with frost, and 

 bridled the current of the streams with ice, yes, in 

 that very season was he cropping the locks of the 

 soft acanthus.* Lindens had he, and pines, in 

 * Several plants, with the ancients, bore the name of 



