!2t 



VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Lime — Tilia Europcea. 



Lime Tree (communis). It is an exceedinoly beauti- 

 ful tree, grows fast, and attains a very g-reat size. It 

 is not supposed to be a native of Eng-land, but 

 mention is made of it growing here, as early as 

 the middle of the sixteenth centun,'. In Switzer- 

 land and Germany there are lime trees of an enor- 

 mous size ; and one, in the county of Norfolk, is 

 mentioned by Sir Thomas Brown as bcmg ninety 

 feet high, with a trunk forty-eight feet in circiun- 

 ference, at a foot and a half from the ground. 



The lime bears the smoke of cities better than any 

 other tall-o-rowing forest tree ; and lor this reason the 

 shaded w alks about the cities on the Continent, more 

 especially in Germany, are planted with it. It has 

 other advantages : the tnmk is smooth ; the leaves 

 are of a most beautifully delicate green; the flowers 

 throw out a verv' agreeable fragrance ; and it is not 

 so liable to a:et unsightly, from wounds and decayed 

 branches, as almost any other tree. But its leaves 

 come late in the spring, and they begin to fall early, 

 — as early sometimes as the month of July. 



Though a soft aud w^eak timber, the lime is valu- 



