THE LIME. 
39 
The flowers are succeeded by globose little fruits, each about 
a quarter of an inch across, yellow, and covered with pale 
down. In a good season these will be found to contain one 
or two seeds, but too often in !this country the summers are too 
cool to ripen them. The Lime does not begin to bear until 
about its thirty-fifth year. It flowers every year thereafter, 
but the question of its seed-crop depends entirely upon the 
weather. 
For the purposes to which large timber is usually put, the 
light white wood of the Lime is not highly esteemed, not being 
considered of sufficient durability ; yet it serves for many 
smaller uses, where its lightness and fine grain are strong 
recommendations. It must not be forgotten that the wonderful 
carvings of Grinling Gibbons were executed in this wood. It is 
largely used by the makers of musical instruments ; and, as 
every one knows, it is from the inner bark of the Lime that those 
useful bast mats, which are imported from Russia in such large 
numbers, are made. Probably owing to its lightness, again, the 
wood was used in old times for making bucklers. The question 
of its value as timber is probably never taken into account when 
it is planted in this country, where its ornamental appearance as 
an avenue or shade-tree is its great recommendation. It is one 
of the long-lived trees, its full life-period being certainly five 
centuries. Those in St. James’s Park are popularly supposed 
to have been planted, at the suggestion of John Evelyn, some- 
where about the year 1660. There is a fine Lime avenue in 
Bushey Park, probably planted by Dutch William. 
Deer and cattle are fond of the foliage and young shoots 
if they can get at them. Numerous insects exhibit a like 
partiality ; of these the caterpillar of the large and hand- 
some Lime Hawk-moth {Smeriuthus tilice) is the most 
characteristic. 
The differences between the three species may be briefly 
noted : — 
F 
