96 FAMILIAR TREES 



It seems, however, mean and petty to be thinking 

 of the uses to which its dead body can be put, when 

 one is in the presence of the majestic beauty of a 

 living Linden, rising in its columnar form like some 

 gigantic Norman pillar of verdure from the park or 

 lawn. Were it absolutely useless as timber or for 

 other purposes, were it even destitute of its melli- 

 fluous flowers with their delicious perfume, the 

 Linden would yet, for the sake of its form and its 

 foliage alone, deserve to be a favourite tree ; and it 

 is fortunate that, though its excessive formation of 

 honey-dew is somewhat of a drawback to its use in 

 gardens, it is fairly able to withstand London smoke, 

 and thus precedes the Planes and Poplars in enliven- 

 ing our parks and squares. It submits meekly to the 

 pruning-knife, and horribile dicta I the saw of the 

 suburban gardener, and, as a consequence of this 

 patience, may be seen in too many places butchered 

 into carcases that even the beautifying and healing 

 hand of Nature in spring can hardly succeed in 

 rendering aught but repulsive. 



It is undoubtedly a regrettable circumstance that, 

 as they precede many other trees in unfolding, so too 

 the leaves of the Linden precede those of most other 

 trees in falling, and remind us, as they litter our 

 lawns, of the approach of autumn, when we are only 

 just beginning to realise our too brief and tardy 

 English summer. But at that season we still have 

 our Planes in full verdure ; and even Sycamores and 

 Horse-chestnuts, not to mention Oaks and Elms, 

 show no signs as yet of leaving us a mere mass 

 of melancholy boughs. 



