THE LIME. 121 



able for many purposes. It is delicately white, and 

 of an uniform colour, and therefore it is admirably 

 adapted for all light works that are to be partially 

 painted, and then varnished. Though it is very 

 close in the gram, it blunts the tool less than any 

 other timber; and as it has the same property as 

 maple, of not warping, and even in a higher degree, it 

 is used for cutting-boards and for the keys of musical 

 instruments. It also stands the tool well, and is 

 called, by way of eminence, "the carver's tree," being 

 used by the carvers and gilders for most parts of their 

 wooden ornaments. At iron foundries, the ornaments 

 for the fronts of stoves and other purposes are all first 

 , cut in lime-tree, and some of them are moulded from 

 the carving, though casts be more generally taken in 

 lead, as being more durable, and admitting of a 

 smoother surface. The exquisite carvings with which 

 Grindling Gibbons ornamented so many of the 

 churches and palaces in England, in the time of 

 Charles II., are all executed in lime-tree. Lime, 

 though softer and more easily cut than beech or 

 maple, is not so much affected either by the worm 

 or by rot. 



The bark of the lime-tree is an article of commerce. 

 As the trunk of the tree is tall and free from knots, 

 the bark may be stripped off in long pieces. These are 

 macerated in water till the fibrous layers separate ; and 

 are then divided into narrow slips, called bast, which, 

 in the northern parts of Europe, are plaited into ropes, 

 and worked into mats. The mats in which flax and 

 hemp are imported from the Baltic, and which, in this 

 country, are in constant use by gardeners for covering 

 plants from the weather, and tying them up, and 

 also for market and tool baskets, are made of bast, 

 or the bark of the lime tree. Though the lime be not 

 so great a favourite in this country as it was in former 

 times, it may very fairly be doubted whether the pop- 



VOL. II. 11 



