212 CONVERSATIONS ON THK 



The general name of this class is lime : and the 

 three varieties are called the American lime, 

 or bass-wood, the white, and the downy-lime." 

 " Uncle Philip, does the sour lime that they 

 sell at the confectioners' that they make 

 lemonade of; does that grow on either of 



these ?" 



" No ; that is a species of lemon, and grows 

 in the West Indies and other hot countries. 

 The limes that I am going to tell you about 

 are very different. The American lime is a 

 fine tall tree, sometimes as many as eighty 

 feet high, and very straight. The leaves are 

 heart-shaped, and very like the leaves of the 

 common Lombardy poplar, only smaller ; but 

 the most curious thing about it is the way in 

 which the flowers and seeds grow. Besides 

 the common leaf which hangs from a stem 

 like the leaves of other trees, there is a long, 

 very narrow leaf, that springs directly from 

 the branches ; from the centre of this narrow 

 leaf grows a long stem, which splits into three 

 towards the end, and the flowers, which are 

 pale yellow and quite pretty, hang at the ends 

 of these in small clusters ; and after the 

 flowers are gone, the seeds come in their 

 places : they are little gray balls, much like 



