AND SHRUBS FOR CITIES. 



169 



result could be obtained in our Englisb streets^ we must turn 

 to those trees that we have already tested thoroughly. 



We vill next deal with the Lime, its bad and not its good 

 qualities placing it so high in my list ; for, while planted 

 more abundantly than any other city tree^ it is by far the 

 worst that I am acquainted with, and the extensive use of 

 it in our streets is the most blameworthy of bad practices in 

 either town or country planting. I am speaking of the 

 aspect of the tree as displayed in cities. I have seen the 

 tall lines of Lime trees in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris 

 fall into the sere and yellow leaf before one had time to 

 admire the pleasing soft green which they display when their 

 leaf blades are first rolled out; and on coming back to 

 London, at the end of July, 1868^ I found the Limes 

 the most miserable and mangy-looking trees anywhere to 

 be seen. And all this in the midst of the summer when 

 we are most oppressed with heat ! The withered, burnt, 

 insect-covered leaves rustle lifeless upon the trees, hoarsely 

 whispering the death of the year in our ears before we have 

 half enjoyed the summer. In many cases they have perished 

 prematurely and unnaturally, and have even lost the power 

 to fall off the tree, but remain rustling on the branches^ 

 giving the ear as well as the eye a foretaste of winter three 

 or four months before the proper time. 



Can anjT^thing be more unwise than to persist in planting 

 such a tree as largely as we do when there are dozens of de- 

 ciduous trees that will do all that a Lime does at the best of 

 times, and that present no such objectionable features as those 

 alluded to at that season when a tree ought to be full of 

 life and beauty ? Our winter, the period when our deciduous 

 trees must be devoid of leaves, is long enough without 

 making it needlessly so by lining every street with the 

 Lime. In the parks this tree may sometimes be planted_, 

 but never in streets, quays, or boulevards. Apart from its 

 presenting a diseased appearance for more than half the time 

 that it ought to be full of green life, the Lime grows much 

 too large for the little front gardens where it is so abun- 

 dantly employed, and will soon keep away from the house 

 it is planted to adorn a large portion of the light and sun 



