Tilia 1^59 



prevalence of this species there in ancient times. Limehouse, in London, according 

 to Stowe, was originally called Limehurst, meaning a grove of linden trees in 

 Saxon times. (A. H.) 



Some doubt exists among botanists as to whether the small-leaved lime is truly 

 native of England or not. It is not mentioned by Clement Reid as having been 

 found in the fossil state in Britain ; and by some it is supposed to have been 

 introduced at an early epoch, perhaps by the Romans. But in some parts of the 

 West Midlands it is found in woods remote from buildings, where one can hardly 

 believe it was planted, so that it might fairly be considered a native but for one 

 important fact. Notwithstanding many inquiries even in the districts where it now 

 seems most at home, I have found no one who has seen a self-sown small-leaved 

 lime. It seems hardly possible that a native tree should have lost its power of 

 reproduction by seed, in a climate where it succeeds so well even as far north as 

 Ross-shire ; and in the north of France self-sown seedling limes are not uncommon, 

 as I have myself observed in the For^t de Retz. The tree has a remarkable power 

 of persistence after repeated cutting, and of extending from stools to a considerable 

 distance ; so that in two old coppiced woods on my own property, it is now impossible 

 to say where the stools originated. I have seen limes in remote rocky woods on the 

 Wye valley near Moccas Court, whose stools had the appearance of very great age ; 

 and in the deep rocky gorge of Castle Eden Dene, on the coast of Durham, there 

 are limes growing on such steep rocks that they could scarcely have been planted. 

 But though rabbits will eat almost anything before they touch lime, I have searched 

 in vain for seedlings in all these places. On the Carboniferous limestone rocks at 

 Pen Moel near Chepstow, the residence of W. R. Price, Esq., I saw the tree growing 

 in situations where it must have grown naturally from seed ; and though Mr. Price 

 has never found ripe fruit he has not the least doubt that it is indigenous here and 

 elsewhere on the cliffs of the lower Wye valley. 



E. Lees, in Botany of Worcestershire, i6 (1867) gives an excellent account of 

 the occurrence of the lime in that county, where it is, in his opinion, " an undoubted 

 native." He states that Shrawley wood, west of the Severn, which is about 500 

 acres in extent, is remarkable for a great part of it consisting of an undergrowth of 

 lime, which is regularly cut as coppice-wood, and, therefore, is never in a flowering 

 state.^ On visiting this place, I agreed with Sir H. Vernon, of Hanbury Hall, 

 near Droitwich, the owner of the wood, that the stools are in rows as though 

 they had been planted ; moreover there is not, so far as he knows, any lime in 

 the adjoining woods. He says that this underwood used to be cut every seventeen 

 years, and sent to the Potteries for making crates, but that this demand having 

 ceased, it is now difficult to get rid of. It is now allowed to grow into poles, which 

 are sometimes sold for copper-smelting in the Black Country, at about six or seven 

 pounds per acre for twenty to twenty-five years' growth. In Sir H. Vernon's 

 opinion, it would now pay better to grub the lime and plant larch in its place. 



Lees ^ goes on to state that " Ockeridge wood, near Holt, though in a lesser 



1 Cf. p. 1656, note 2. 

 2 Cf. also Lees' remarks in Forest and Chace of Malvern, abstracted in Card, Chrcm. 1870, p. 1536. 



