THE LINDENS 69 



paper. The inner bark is tough and fibrous. It has been 

 used since the human race was young, in the making of 

 ropes, fish nets, and lilve necessities. It was a favorite 

 tying material in nurseries and greenhouses until the more 

 adaptable raflia came in to take its place. The bark of 

 young trees is stripped in spring to make the shoes of the 

 Russian peasantry. An infusion of basswood flowers has 

 long been a home remedy for indigestion, nervousness, 

 coughs, and hoarseness. Experiments in Germany have 

 successfully extracted a table oil from the seed-balls. A 

 nutritious paste resembling chocolate has been made from 

 its nuts, which are delicious when fresh. In winter the 

 buds, as well as the tiny nuts, stand between the lost trap- 

 per and starvation. The flowers yield large quantities of 

 nectar, and honey made near linden forests is unsurpassed 

 in delicacy of flavor. 



About the time of Louis XIV, the French fashion arose of 

 planting avenues to lindens, where horse-chestnuts had 

 formerly been the favorite tree. The fashion spread to 

 England of bordering with "lime trees" approaches to the 

 homes of the gentry. "Pleached alleys" were made wit); 

 these fast-growing trees that submitted so successfully to 

 severe pruning and training. All sorts of grotesque figures 

 were carved out of the growing lime trees in the days before 

 topiary work in gardens submitted to the rules of land- 

 scape art, and slower growing trees were chosen for such 

 purposes. 



In cultivation, lindens have the virtues of swift growth, 

 superb framework, clean, smooth bark, and late, profuse, 

 beautiful and fragrant bloom, which is followed by interest- 

 ing seed clusters, winged with a pale blade that lightens 

 the foliage mass. One fault is the early dropping of the 



