64 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 





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THE EUROPEAN LINDEN. 



Augsburg, under whose sliade they often feast and 

 celebrate their weddings; because they are all 

 noted for their reverend antiquity ; that at Basil 

 branching out one hundred paces in diameter from 

 a stem of about twenty feet in circle, under v/hich 

 the German emy>eror.s have sometimes eaten; and 

 to such trees, it seems, they paid divine honors, as 

 the nearest emblems of eternity." At Neustadt in 

 Wirtemburg, tliere is a prodigious Linden tree. — 

 It is said by Evelyn to have had, in his time, a 

 trunk above twenty -seven feet in circamference,and 

 the diameter of the space covered by its branches 

 to have been 408 feet. It was '" set about witli di- 

 vers columns and monuments of stone (83 in num- 

 ber, and formerly above 100 more,) which several 

 princes and noble jiersons have adorned, and which, 

 as so m.uiy pillars, serve alike to support the_ um- 

 brageous and venerable boughs." lie adds copies of 

 many of tlie inscriptions on tlie colujnns, the oldest 

 of which is dated 1550; and the column on which 

 it is inscribed supports one of the largest limbs, at 

 a considerable distance from the tree, which must 

 have been o\' enormous size over three hundred 

 years ago. In the wars which have desolated the 

 country since the time of Evelyn, this tree sufiered 

 isevereiy, but it is still in existence. 



The name LiNrx-Etrs, the great Swedish botanist, 

 ia taken from an ancient Linden tree, of great mag- 



nitude, wliieh grew near His dwelling, linn being th* 

 Swedish name of the lime tree, or linden. 



Honey produced by the linden blossom^!, is con- 

 sidered superior to ail other kinds for its delicacy. 



« The lje« 

 Sits ou the bloom, oxtr&cting liqiud sweets deliciously." 



"Who tliat has seen noble specimens of the Amer- 

 can Lindeii, or Basswood trees, fall one after tha 

 other before the ruthless axe of the hardy, unpoet- 

 ic pioneer, does not recall to memory the passage in 

 "Landoe's Conversations: "Old trees in their 

 living state are the only things that money cannot 

 command. Elvers leave their beds, run into cities, 

 and traverse mountains for it ; obelisks and arches, 

 palaces and temples, ampitheatres and pyramids, 

 rise x\p like exhalations at its bidding : even tha 

 free spirit of man, the only thing great on earth, 

 couches and cowers in its presence ; it passes away 

 and vanishes l)efore venerable trees. What a sweet 

 odor is there! Whence comes it? Sweeter it ap- 

 pears to me and stronger, than the i^ine itself. I 

 imairine, siid he, from the linden. Yes, certainly. 

 O. Don Pkpino, cried I, the French, who abhor 

 whatever is old, and whatever is great, have spared 

 it. The Austrians, who sell their fortunes and their 

 armies; nav, sometimes their daugliters, have not 

 si)l(l it. Must it fall? O, who upon earth coidd 

 I ever cut down a linden?" 



