TREES NATIVE AND NATURALISED 37 



tire of an annual pilgrimage to Bushey Park, to 

 see the horse-chestnuts in bloom. 



Italy, no doubt, sent us the ilex, but it took 

 some time to win its way into favour. Indeed, it 

 is a moot point whether it can even now be said 

 to be popular, though it is to be seen often enough. 

 There are fine old ilexes at Kew, but in Evelyn's 

 day it was still very rare, though he mentions in 

 one of his letters that he had himself reared seed- 

 lings from the acorns of an English-grown tree, 

 but adds : " I have now but few of them remaining, 

 through the negligence of my gardiner, for they 

 require care at the first raising till they are accus- 

 tom 'd to the cold, and then no rigour impeaches 

 them." 



The custom of planting avenues of limes came 

 into fashion in the reign of Charles II., and was 

 borrowed from France. For this purpose Evelyn 

 recommends the lime as "of all others, the most 

 proper and beautiful for walks, as producing an 

 upright body, smooth and even bark, ample leaf, 

 sweet blossom the delight of bees, and a goodly 

 shade at a distance of eighteen to twenty-five feet." 

 He has also great praise for the park at Hampton 

 Court, " now planted with sweete rows of lime 

 trees." For the great maple, i.e. the sycamore, 

 on the contrary, he had not a good word to say. 

 " It would by my consent be banished from all 

 curious gardens and avenues." 



One of the grandest of all the trees introduced 

 about that period is the cedar of Lebanon ; but 

 though it was known from Biblical times, there 

 seems to be no very authentic date given for its 



