BRITISH FOREST TREES 303 



lo thirty-fifth year ; this ripens about the end of October, 

 remains hanging till well into winter, and has a germinative 

 capacity of about 60 per cent. The seed of the large-leaved 

 species is plainly five-ribbed, and about the size of a pea, 

 whilst that of the other is only two-thirds as large, one 

 pound containing respectively about 8,000 to 10,000 and 

 1 5, ooo to 16,000 seeds (according to Ney). It germinates 

 sometimes in the following spring, sometimes not till the 

 second spring, especially if kept too dry during winter. 



The lime surpasses all other softwoods in attainable age, 1 

 and can well maintain the same periods of rotation as hard- 

 woods. It is endowed with considerable and long-main- 

 tained recuperative and reproductive power, which displays 

 itself not only in the healing of wounds in the bark, but 

 also in the throwing out of shoots from the stool, stem, and 

 branches ; hence it is well adapted both for coppicing and 

 pollarding. It does not, as a rule, throw out root-suckers, 

 although deep-seated stool-shoots often have the appear- 

 ance of true stoles, and it is easily reproduced by layering, 

 a method extensively adopted in Holland and Belgium. 



Liability to Suffer from External Dangers. The strongly- 

 developed root-system of the lime protects it against windfall, 

 the danger of which is also decreased by the late breaking 

 into leaf in spring and the early defoliation in autumn. 

 Against late frosts, that nip the tender young leaves in May, 

 its strong reproductive power is an adequate protection, so 

 that it may be regarded as on the whole hardy; this is 

 especially true of the small-leaved species. Where strong 

 scorching action of the hot afternoon sun can take effect on 



1 Burckhardt (Sden und Pflanzen, 1871, p. 477), states that at 

 Harste, near Gottingen, there is a large-leaved lime measuring 27 

 circumference at breast-height (in 1871), under which the old open air 

 courts used to be held, and which even in 1425 was referred to in the 

 records of such proceedings as the old Lime. 



