TILIACE^E. 



large enough, which it generally is after five or six years' 

 growth, to cut into rims and uprights for earthenware and 

 glass crates, and various other minor purposes, where a 

 strong and durable wood is not required. 



The Lime-tree in England is almost always propagated 

 by layers, which become sufficiently rooted to be severed 

 from the stock at the end of a year. This mode is adopted 

 for the following reasons : first, that it seldom ripens its 

 seeds in Britain ; the second is, that plants raised from seed 

 (which may be obtained in any quantity from the Conti- 

 nent) are, for some years, of very slow growth compared 

 with those raised by layering, and therefore do not make 

 a sufficiently quick return to the nurseryman. If cut in 

 and pollarded, Lime-trees of a considerable age may be 

 transplanted, but they long remain unsightly, and rarely 

 form a fine tree ; transplanted of a large size, with all 

 their spray, they seldom succeed, though every attention 

 be bestowed upon the operation. 



The soil most congenial to the Lime, and in which it 

 attains its greatest size and finest form, is a rich clayey 

 loam, or the alluvial deposits in low-lying meadows, haughs, 

 the margins of rivers, &c. It also grows well in a light 

 gTavelly loam, provided it is sufficiently retentive of mois- 

 ture, and does not parch or become desiccated by the heats 

 of summer. In retentive clays, and poor tilly soils, it 

 never thrives, but invariably exhibits a yellow, sickly, and 

 stunted appearance ; the foliage in such situations, and in 

 atmospheres injurious to it, (such as that saturated with 

 the smoke of pit coal,) is lost at a very early period, 

 whereas that of trees planted in favourable situations, is 

 retained nearly as long as the foliage of the beech-tree, 

 sycamore, and several other trees. 



The foliage of the Lime affords a pabulum to the cater- 



