THE planter's GUIDE. 



349 



inside. The Romans highly esteemed it for its shade, and 

 considered it as among the most useful of trees. Tilice 

 ad mille usus petendcEJ^' They made writing tablets of 

 the bark, and they cut the thin skin which lies between 

 the bark and the wood into shreds, and used it for tying 

 garlands and chaplets, as we do ribbon. Paper for writing 

 was also made of it, as is attested by Pliny. 



It has been said above, in speaking of the Horse- 

 Chestnut, that perhaps no tree transplants with so much 

 facility. If there be any one that merits the praise of 

 equalling it, it is the Lime. The roots of the latter are 

 naturally fibrous ; they bear preparation well, or they do 

 without it; and a skilful pruner, while the tree is in the 

 transplanting nursery, will in a short time train the top, 

 either in the spiral or the spreading style, as best suits 

 the views of the planter. In large designs of transplant- 

 ing it gives a pleasing variety to underwood ; but, as it is 

 a quick grower, it must be carefully kept under the disci- 

 pline of the knife, in order to make it retain that 

 character. 



It may be also said of this tree, as of the Horse- 

 Chestnut and the Elm, that it accommodates itself to all 

 seasons of the year for transplanting, from November till 

 May ; and that, although it may be injured by violence or 

 want of skill during the process, it will scarcely ever be 

 killed outright by it. In the case of severe drought im- 

 mediately succeeding the time of removal, or late frosts in 

 the spring, it is apt sometimes to lose its top shoots. It 

 forms, however, the best subject, together with the Horse- 

 Chestnut, the Elm, and the Sycamore, on which the inex- 

 perienced transplanter may try his skill. 



* Plin. Hist. Natur. Lib. xviii. p. 28. 



