"At Depeham, in Norfolk, grows an extraordinary Lime tree, the compass of which, in the least part of the body, is eight yards and a half, and about the roots, near the earth, it measures sixteen yards. This surmounts the famous Lime of Zurich in Switzerland, and uncertain it is whether in any Lime-walk abroad it be considerably exceeded."

This tree was ninety feet high.

The wood of the Lime tree is turned into light bowls, and dishes, and boxes for the apothecaries; but its chief use is for carving:

66

Their beauteous veins the yew

And phillyrea lend, to surface o'er

The cabinet. Smooth linden best obeys
The carver's chisel; best his curious work
Displays in all its nicest touches."

DODSLEY'S Agriculture.

Many of Gibbons's beautiful works in Lime tree are dispersed about this country," says Martyn, "in the churches and palaces: as in the choir of St. Paul's; the Duke of Devonshire's at Chatsworth; Trinity College library, at Cambridge, &c." Evelyn, speaking of these works of Gibbons, says, "Having had the honour (for so I account it) to be the first who recommended this great artist to his Majesty Charles the Second: I mention it on this occasion with much satisfaction."

"With the twigs of the Lime," observes this delightful author, " they make baskets and cradles, and of the smoother side of the bark, tablets for writing; for the ancient Philyra is but our Tilia, of which Munting affirms he saw a book made of the inward bark, written about a thousand years since. Such another was brought to the Count of St. Amant, governor of Arras, 1662, for which there were given eight thousand ducats by the

emperor. It contained a work of Cicero, De Ordinanda Republica, et de Inveniendis Orationum Exordiis; a piece inestimable, but never published, and now in the library at Vienna, after it had formerly been the greatest rarity in that of the late Cardinal Mazarine. Other papyraceous trees are mentioned by West Indian travellers, especially in Hispaniola, Java, &c. whose inward bark not only exceeds our largest paper for breadth and length, and may be written on both sides, but is comparable to our best vellum. Bellonius says that the Grecians made bottles of the Tilia, which they finely resined withinside.” Again, speaking of the numbers of Limes planted by the Dutch, he breaks forth in a rapturous manner,-" Is there a more ravishing or delightful object than to behold some entire streets and whole towns planted with these trees, in even lines before their doors, so as they even seem like cities in a wood? This is extremely fresh, of admirable effect against the epilepsy, for which the delicately scented blossoms are held prevalent, and skreen the houses from wind, rain, and dust; than which there can be nothing more desirable where streets are much frequented*."

It has been observed that the Lime is called Bast in Lincolnshire, because ropes are made of the bark; mats also are made of it, which are used by gardeners, and are called Bast in the north of Europe. Great numbers of them are made in Russia, and exported to other countries. The sap of the Lime, inspissated, affords a quantity of sugar.

The garlands of flowers with which the ancients crowned themselves in their convivial entertainments, were artfully bound together with slips of the inner rind of the Lime tree.

* Evelyn's Sylva.

"Ebrius incinctis philyra conviva capillis
Saltat, et imprudens utitur arte meri.”

OVID. Fast.

"A cup too much the boon companion takes,
And reeling in the dance, his linden riband shakes."

The character of the Lime the most frequently noticed by poets, is its smoothness: Virgil says,-" Tiliæ læves:"-" Smooth Limes." Cowper alludes to this quality in the following passage, in which he describes a beautiful character of woody scenery which has not often been touched upon :

Here the gray smooth trunks
Of ash, or lime, or beech, distinctly shine,
Within the twilight of their distant shades;

There, lost behind a rising ground, the wood

Seems sunk, and shortened to its topmost boughs."

Task, book i.

The same circumstance is noticed in the Story of Rimini, with the addition of a bright sunshine :

"Places of nestling green for poets made,

Where, when the sunshine struck a yellow shade,
The slender trunks to inward-peeping sight,
Throng'd in dark pillars up the gold green light."
LEIGH HUNT.

* This is Horace speaking. He is telling his servant not to make ostentatious preparations for the wine he is going to drink under a bower, nor to add any thing to the simple crown of myrtle for his head.

This poet, who was the first, and has hitherto been the only mortal, who has been honoured with the sight of the Nepheliads in person, informs us that they love

a leafy nook and lone,

Where the bark on the small treen

Is with moisture always green;

And lime tree bowers, and grass-edged lanes
With little ponds that hold the rains,
Where the nice-eyed wagtails glance,
Sipping 'twixt their jerking dance."

Nymphs, part ii.

According to Rapin, (whom on this account we must quote, notwithstanding the poverty of the English version,) Baucis and Philemon were transformed to Lime

trees:

"The mounting limes will all their care requite,
Who take in shady walks a true delight;
While these you plant, Philemon call to mind,
In love and duty with his Baucis join'd,
A good old pair whom poverty had tried,
Nor could their vows and nuptial faith divide ;
Their humble cot with sweet content was blest,
And each benighted stranger was their guest:
When Jove unknown they kindly entertained,
This boon the hospitable pair obtained,

Laden with years, and weak through length of time,
That they should each become a verdant lime."

Cowley praises the Lime tree very highly, in his poem

on trees.

Sannazaro calls it "la incorrutibile Tiglia,” the incorruptible Lime; for, says the editor, "non sente mai corrottione di sorte alcuna." "It never feels corruption any sort*."

of

* Arcadia di M. I. Sannazaro, prosa prima.

LIQUIDAMBER TREE.

LIQUIDAMBAR.

AMENTACEÆ.

MONECIA POLYANDRIA.

This tree was so named by the Spaniards in America, from the liquid gum which it distils. It is familiarly called sweet-gum, and was formerly called liquid storax-tree.-French, copalme, liquidambar; Italian, liquidambra.

THE trunk of the Liquidambar styracifiua is commonly two feet in diameter at full growth, straight, and bare of branches to the height of fifteen feet; from thence the branches spread and rise in a conic form, to the height of forty feet or more from the ground. The leaves are shaped somewhat like those of the lesser maple, but are of a darker green, and glossy on their upper surface: a sweet and glutinous substance distils through their pores in warm weather, which renders them clammy to the touch. In February, before the leaves are formed, the blossoms begin to break forth from the tops of the branches, into spikes of pale red, or deep saffron-coloured globular flowers, which swell gradually, still retaining their round form, to the full maturity of the seed-vessels, which are thick set with pointed hollow protuberances : each cell contains a seed winged at one end, beside many small grains, distinct from the seed.

The wood of this tree is used in wainscoting, &c. The grain is fine, and sometimes beautifully variegated; but is apt to shrink if not well seasoned; and to season it well is an operation of eight or ten years. From be