90 LIME. 



finest honey in the world is obtained from Kowno in Lithuania, 

 where there are large forests of this tree. The fruit or nut contains 

 an oleaginous substance, and when roasted, has been proposed as a 

 domestic substitute for chocolate. The sap of this useful tree 

 abounds in mucilage, which by repeated boiling and clarification 

 furnishes a kind of sugar ; it may be procured by making incisions 

 in the trunk and branches, as from the Birch, and by fermentation 

 may be made into wine. 



Excrescences or galls of a reddish colour, occasioned by an in- 

 sect, (Cynips foliorum Tilise ?) are found on the leaves of this tree 

 in the spring. Reaumur discovered that these were capable of 

 furnishing a beautiful and durable red colour ; he therefore recom- 

 mends them as useful in dyeing. 



The leaves are relished by cows, horses, goats, and sheep, and 

 may be dried and preserved as winter fodder. In autumn, the milk 

 of cows that feed upon them is reported to acquire a very unpleasant 

 taste. 



Qualities. — The flowers have a very sweet fragrant odour,* which 

 is nearly dissipated in drying, and a faint, sweetish, subviscid taste. 

 The petals assume a reddish hue when dried. The bark exhibits 

 scarcely any sensible properties, except a slight bitterness. The 

 aqueous infusion of the bark is of an orange-colour, and of an 

 insipid, unpleasant taste and odour. The flowers yield the whole 

 of their fragrance to water and spirit by distillation, but no essential 

 oil has been obtained. The infusion of the recent flowers f is 

 sweet and fragrant, with a slightly bitter taste ; it receives a dark 

 hue on the addition of sulphate of iron. The saturated infusion of 

 the recently-dried flowers is mucilaginous, thick and filamentous, 

 but appears limpid and diaphanous, and has similar qualities to the 

 foregoing; on pouring alcohol into this infusion, a mucilage is 

 precipitated. J 



* Vicat states that two families, at Lausanne, were affected every sum- 

 mer with drowsiness and somnolency, from the odour of the flowers, 

 which grew in a neighbouring avenue. 



t When the anodyne and demulcent properties of the plant are re- 

 quired, the infusion should be made from the flowers alone. According 

 to Host (Fl. Austr. 263), when the bracteae and fruits are mixed with the 

 flowers, the infusion becomes astringent. The same remark will apply 

 to the distilled water, in preparing which, care should be taken that the 

 petals be not bruised, and that the heat be moderate. 



X Bergius; Mat. Med. torn. ii. p. 428. 



