THE LIME TREE. 



93 



dismember most other trees. The red-twigged Lime 

 is preferable for this purpose in point of beauty, on 

 account of the pleasing- spectacle which the red 

 twigs afford in the absence of its leaves. 



The Lime Tree can accommodate itself to almost 

 any kind of ground ; but in a rich loamy soil it 

 grows with almost incredible swiftness, and spreads 

 to an amazing size. Evelyn thus describes some of 

 the giants of this species : " But here does properly 

 intervene the Linden of Schalouse in Swisse, under 

 which is a bower composed of its branches, capable 

 of containing three hundred persons sitting at ease : 

 it has a fountain set about with many tables, formed 

 only of the boughs, to which they ascend by steps, 

 all kept so accurately, and so very thick that the 

 sun never looks into it. But this is nothing to that 

 prodigious Tilia of Neustadt, in the Duchy of Wir- 

 temberg, so famous for its monstrosity, that even 

 the city itself receives a denomination from it, being- 

 called by the Germans Neustadt ander grossen Linden, 

 or Neustadt by the great Lime Tree. The circum- 

 ference of the trunk is twenty-seven feet four fingers ; 

 the ambitus, or extent of the boughs, four hundred 

 and three fert ; the diameter from south to north 

 one hundred and forty-five, from east to west one 

 hundred and nineteen feet ; set about with divers 

 columns and monuments of stone, (eighty-two in 

 number at present, and formerly above a hundred 

 more,) which several Princes and Noble Persons 



