LIME TREE. 



219 



and trunks ; and helps to roof their cottages. Of the 

 inner bark are made mats, many of which they export ; 

 the rind of the young shoots they braid into shoes. 

 " The wood is sawn into boards, wrought up into canoes, 

 and burned into pot-ashes, and from the blossom of the 

 Linden tree the bees suck an excellent nourishment 



Evelyn says, that in a rich loamy soil, which ihe Lime 

 affects, " its growth will be most incredible for speed and 

 spreading.''"' Of the several varieties, the Red-twigged is 

 the most desirable, from the very circmristance which 

 gives it the name ; the red twigs finely contrasting with 

 the green foliage. 



There are several Lime trees upon record remarkable 

 for their magnitude : it will suffice to mention a few of 

 the most considerable. Evelyn speaks of one in Switzer- 

 land forming a bower with its branches, capable of con- 

 taining three hundred men 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 accu- 

 rately, and so very thick, that the sun never looks into 

 it. " But this,"" continues he, " is nothing to that pro- 

 digious Lime of Neustadt, in the duchy of Wirtemberg, 

 so famous for its monstrosity, that even the city itself 

 receives a denomination from it, being called by the 

 Germans ' Neustadt ander grossen Linden^' — ' Neustadt 

 by the great Lime tree." The circumference of the trunk 

 is twenty-seven feet four fingers. 



He mentions a third, the account of which he received 

 from Sir Thomas Brown of Norwich, and gives in his 

 o^vn words. We will hope he speaks from his own 

 knowledge, since whatever he heard, his " active faith'" 

 would credit. 



* Tookc's Survey of Russia^ vol. iii. p. 368. 



