TILIACE.E. 175 



style of Dutch taste. The Lime trees with which we are all familiar in St. James's 

 Park were planted at Evelyn's suggestion about a.d. 1660, with a view to the improve- 

 ment of the air, and to avert the evils pointed out in his " Funiifugium." He says : "It 

 is a shameful negligence that we are no better provided with nurseries for a tree so 

 choice and so universally acceptable. We send commonly for this tree into Flanders and 

 Holland, while our woods do in some places spontaneously produce them." The old 

 Linden tree of Soleure, in Switzerland, said he, is " right noble and wondrous to behold. 

 A bower composed of its branches is capable of holding thi-ee hundred persons sitting at 

 ease; it has also a fountain set about with many tables, formed solely of the boughs, to 

 which men ascend by steps ; and all is kept so accurately and thick that the sun never 

 looks into it." But it is not only as an ornamental and beautifid tree that the Linden 

 deserves and has attracted notice. Its timber, too soft for building and most outdoor 

 work, is valuable to the carver and turner. It is of a pale yellow or white colour, close- 

 grained, soft, light, smooth, and not attacked by insects. It is used by pianoforte 

 makers for sounding-boards, and by cabinet-makers for a variety of purposes. It 

 is especially adapted for carving. Many of the fine carvings at Windsor Castle, Trinity 

 College Library at Cambridge, and in the Duke ot Devonshire's mansion at Chatsworth, 

 are of this material. It is supposed by some that blocks of it were used by 

 Holbein for his wood engravings ; since his time, however, the Box-tree has been 

 preferred for this purpose. The Lime tree wood makes excellent charcoal for gun- 

 powder ; even better than alder, and nearly as good as hazel. Of late years a 

 method of making paper from the young stems has been invented, and may possibly 

 prove useful. A work of Cicero, said to be written on the inner bark of the Lime tree, 

 is still preserved at Vienna. One of the most important uses of the Lime tree in the 

 North of Europe is that of supplying materials for forming ropes and mats, the latter 

 of which enter largely into commerce. The inner bark of the tree is called " bast," and 

 forms the well-known substance which is woven into garden-mats, called bass or bast 

 mats. The Russian peasantry make shoes from the bark of this tree, and ropes are 

 still made from it in Cornwall and some parts of Devonshu-e. The mats which we see 

 in our gardens so frequently covering our trees and protecting them either from the 

 winter frosts or the depredations of birds, are made chiefly in Piussia and Sweden. For 

 this purpose small trees are preferred ; they are steeped in water tUl the bark readily 

 separates into layers, when it is split into ribbons and dried. In Sweden fishing-nets 

 are made of it, and in Carniola a coarse sort of cloth is woven from it by the shepherds, 

 who wear it as their ordinary dress. The foliage of the Lime is much relished by 

 cattle, either green or made into hay ; and in Norway and Sweden it is largely used as 

 fodder, but it is said to give an unpleasant flavour to the milk of cows fed upon it. 

 The sap of the Lime tree drawn off in the spring and evaporated afibrds a considerable 

 quantity of sugar j and Adanson suggested the idea of employing it for this purpose in 

 France in the same way as the sap of the birch and the maple. The honey produced 

 by the sweet-smelling flowers is thought superior to all others for its flavour and its 

 delicacy. The author of the " Georgics," when speaking of the iuilustrious old Corycian 

 swain, " lord of few acres and those barren too," yet connects his most valuable posses- 

 sion, his bees, with their favourite Limes : — 



" He, therefore, first among the swains was found 

 To reap the product of his laboured ground, 

 And squeeze the combs with golden liquor crown'd ; 

 His Limes were first in flower, his lofty jiines 

 With friendly shade secured hia tender vines." 



