90 THE LIME. 



understood that that invaluable little lemon is the 

 produce of an entirely different tree, a first cousin of 

 the orange and the citron. Let it also be mentioned 

 here, that the genuine and original name of the 

 tree we are considering is not Lime, but Line, or 

 more properly, Linden a name referring to the 

 use of the tough bark for making mats and cordage. 

 Under the name of " bass," or " bast," gardeners 

 use vast quantities of this material for tying up 

 plants. Were the tree always called by its much 

 more elegant and poetical name of Linden Chaucer's 

 own name for it on two occasions at least confusion 

 would never arise. Even " teil," the name under 

 which it is mentioned in the Old Testament,* and 

 which is a modification of Tilia, would be better 

 than the barbarism, unfortunately now too deeply 

 established for eradication, which requires us to 

 write m instead of n. What may be the origin and 

 signification of the name Tilia itself is obscure. The 

 word occurs in Virgil and other authors of old Rome ; 

 but by the Greeks this tree was called <j>i\vpa. 

 Virgil's allusions are to the honey yielded so abun- 

 dantly by the flowers, and to the value of the timber 

 for purposes where lightness is a great merit. Hence 

 his expression "tiliae leves/' the smooth-grained 



* If the Hebrew be rightly translated, but the proper 

 rendering of the word used by the prophet would appear to 

 be " terebinth." Elsewhere the same Hebrew word is mis- 

 takenly rendered " oak " and " elm." 



