260 THE LIME-TREE. 



with the then feebleness of the Swiss Eepuhlics, and the 

 extreme simplicity of their manners. In 1831 the trunk 

 of this tree measured thirteen feet nine inches in circujn- 

 ference." Another tree stands near the same place, which 

 is supposed to be nearly a thousand years old ; its trunk 

 is thirty-six feet in circumference, and is still perfectly 

 sound. 



When too we recollect that the father of modern botany, 

 Linnseus, derived his name from the Swedish Lin (our 

 Linden-tree), we must allow that it is recommended to us 

 by the most pleasing associations. 



The Lime-tree occurs in Europe under three forms, ^ 

 which are distinguished principally by the size and smooth- 

 ness (or the reverse) of their leaves. They are all natives 

 of the middle and north of Europe, but the small-leaved 

 species alone is considered to be indigenous to Britain. 

 Though all these kinds have long become naturalized, we 

 rarely see them growing in places where there is no room 

 for suspicion that they may have been originally planted ; 

 yet there is in the neighbourhood of Worcester, on the 

 authority of Mr. Edwin Lees, a wood, remote from any 

 old dwelling or public road, of above five hundred acres 

 in extent, the greater part of the undergrowth of which is 

 composed of the small-leaved Lime. There are also, in the 

 same part of the country, trees estimated to be upwards of 

 three hundred years old. 



The Lime is a large tree, characterised by its pyramidal 

 shape, by the multiplicity of its long, slender, and upright 

 branches, which start from the main stem not many feet 

 from the base, and by the unbroken surface presented by 

 its abundant foliage. These characters give to half-grown 

 trees, in which they are most conspicuous, a stiff and for- 

 mal appearance, especially if they happen to be planted in 

 rows. In older specimens the weight of the lower branches 

 frequently bends them down to the ground so as entirely 

 to conceal the trunk ; the middle part of the tree is thus 

 1 Tilia Europcca, T. platyi^hylla, and T. j)arvifolia. 



