DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
145 
among us by the name of basswood. It is a rapidly growing, 
handsome, upright, and regularly shaped tree ; and all the 
species are much esteemed, both in Europe and this country, 
for planting in avenues and straight lines, wherever the taste 
is in favour of geometric plantations. In Germany and Hol- 
land, it is a great favourite for bordering their wide and 
handsome streets, and lining their long and straight canals. 
“In Berlin,” Granville says in his travels, “there is a 
celebrated street called l unter der Linden ,’ (under the lime 
trees,) a gay and splendid avenue, planted with double rows 
of this tree, which presented to my view a scene far more 
beautiful than I had hitherto witnessed in any town, either in 
France, Flanders, or Germany.” In this country, the Euro- 
pean lime is also much planted in our cities ; and some ave- 
nues of it may be seen in Philadelphia, particularly before 
the State-house in Chestnut-street. The basswood is a very 
abundant tree in some parts of the middle states, and is seen 
growing in great profusion, forming thick woods by itself, in 
the interior of this state. With us, the wood is consid" 
ered too soft to be of much value, but in England it was for- 
merly in high repute as an excellent material for the use of 
carvers. Some very beautiful specimens of old carving in 
lime wood, may be seen in Windsor Castle and Trinity 
College.* The Russian bass mats, which find their way to 
* “ The art of carving in wood, brought to such perfection by Gibbons, is now, 
we believe, much given up ; therefore, the lime has lost a most important branch 
of its usefulness. Perhaps the finest specimens of the works of Gibbons are to be 
seen at Chatsworth, the seat of the duke of Devonshire, in Derbyshire. The 
execution of the flowers, fish, game, nets, etc., on the panelling of the walls, is 
quite wonderful. It was of him that Walpole justly said, ‘ that he was the first 
artist who gave to wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, and chained 
together the various productions of the elements, with a free disorder natural to 
each species.’ The lime tree is still, however, used by the carver, and we hope 
that the art of wood carving may gradually be restored .” — Sir T, D. Lander. 
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