COMMON, OR EUROPEAN LIME-TREE. S 



them, and though of somewhat a smaller leaf, yet alto- 

 gether as good, and apt to be civilized, and made more 

 florid." Trees of a great age and size are also upon record, 

 and many of upwards of one hundred years old are now in 

 existence. Another fact in favour of its being a uative in 

 the form of T. E. microphylla, is stated by Loudon, in the 

 " Arboretum Britannicum," upon the authority of Edwin 

 Lees, Esq., viz., " that at Shrawley, eight miles north of 

 Worcester, there is 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 

 T. E. microphylla f and the same gentleman, in a commu- 

 nication to the Botanical Society of London, mentioned 

 several places in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucester- 

 shire, Monmouthshire, and South Wales, where he con- 

 siders the Lime to be indigenous, and where he met with 

 many remarkable and aged trees. 



Upon this evidence we think that the Lime-tree, in the 

 form of T. E. microphylla, may be indigenous, although the 

 larger leaved varieties are not so, and may have been sub- 

 sequently introduced ; it is the form in which we might 

 expect to find it, considering the nature of our climate as 

 compared with that in which the larger leaved varieties are 

 found to prevail in various parts of the European Continent, 

 and the only strong objection against such an inference is, 

 that even under the form of T. E. microphylla it only occa- 

 sionally ripens its seed in England, the perfect maturation of 

 which is considered by dendrologists as one of the surest 

 and truest tests of an indigenous plant. Omitting however, 

 under these circumstances, Britain, as a native habitat, 

 we may state that the geographical distribution of the T. 

 Europcea under some of its various forms, embraces a great 

 portion of the middle and north of Europe ; thus, that 



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