LIME TREE. 



217 



to open about the twelfth of April, and are all out by the 

 eighteenth. 



Evelyn, too, complains of the " shameful neghgence 

 of our countrymen in not being better provided of a tree 

 so choice and universally acceptable." For in his time 

 they were imported from Holland and Flanders at a great 

 expense, and that, too, " whilst our own woods sponta- 

 neously produce them, and though of a somewhat smaller 

 leaf, yet altogether as good, apt to be civilised, and made 

 more florid.*' 



It is indeed a most beautiful tree ; it grows in a hand- 

 some form, and to a large size ; the fohage is elegant, and 

 of a fine verdure ; its ample leaves and spreading branches 

 affbrd an admirable shade, and the fragrance of its blos- 

 soms is delightful : 



*' Clear was the song from Philomel's far bower ; 

 Grateful the incense from the lime tree flower." 



Keats. 



Moreover, it ^vill resist wind and storm. 



Mr. Martyn remarks, that it was highly esteemed by 

 the Romans for its shade, and numerous uses, and quotes 

 the following hne from Phny in praise of it : 

 Tiliae ad mille usus petendae." 

 Lime trees for a thousand uses sought." 



" The flowers," says Dr. Hunter, " begin to open 

 about the fifteenth of May, and are in full blow about 

 the thirteenth of July, when they appear of a white 

 colour, and have a very fragrant smell. These are very 

 grateful to bees; for which reason Virgil, in his beautiful 

 description of the industrious Corycian, places the Lime 

 and the pine in the neighbourhood of his hives :" 



Ergo apibus fetis idem atque examine multo 

 Primus abundare, et spumantia cogere pressis 

 Mella favis ; illi tilise_, atque uberrima pinus." 



Georgic iv. 



