THE LINDEN 93 
ness to Chaucer, when he wrote, in his “Clerke’s 
Tale ” :— 
“Be ay of, chere as light as lefe on Linde.” 
It was, too, at this, the season of its virginal 
beauty, that Mrs. Browning paid her more explicit 
tribute to the Linden, of which she wrote:— 
“ Here a Linden-tree stood, bright’ning 
All adown its silver rind ;. 
For, as some trees draw the lightning, 
So this tree, unto my mind, 
Drew to earth the blessed sunshine 
From the sky where it was shrined.” 
The twigs form a zigzag, the terminal bud being 
constantly suppressed ; but, lying in one plane and 
giving off their leaves in a strictly alternate or dis- 
tichous manner, they form a flat spray. . The flat, 
blunt buds project outwards from the branches, and 
when the leaves unfold, their outline and veining are 
well worth attentive study. The toothing of their 
edges is absent at the base, and the secondary veins 
given off from the base of the midrib on the larger 
side of the leaf are so big as to suggest rather a 
“palmate” than a “pinnate” arrangement. Fine 
tertiary veins are given off at right angles to the 
larger ones, so as to form cross-ties between them; 
and from these, and from the forking marginal 
extremities of the larger ones, proceeds a complex 
polygonal meshwork of still finer or quaternary veins. 
In summer the foliage of the Linden becomes 
duller in tone, as do most leaves, from the dense 
accumulation of their green colouring matter, or 
chlorophyll, and of other substances within their 
