_Of the Lime-Tree._
1. _Tilia_ the lime-tree, or [linden] is of two kinds; the male (which
some allow to be but a finer sort of elm) or maple rather, is harder,
fuller of knots, and of a redder colour; but producing neither flower,
nor seed, (so constantly and so mature with us) as does the female,
whose blossom is also very odoriferous, perfuming the air, the leaf
larger; the wood is likewise thicker, of small pith, and not obnoxious
to the worm; so as it seems Theophrastus _de Pl._ l. 3. c. 10. said
true, that though they were of both sexes, διαφέρουσι δὲ τῇ μορφῇ τῇ
ὅλῃ, &c. _yet they totally differ’d as to their form_. We send
commonly for this tree into Flanders and Holland, (which indeed grow not
so naturally wild with us) to our excessive cost, whiles our own woods
do in some places spontaneously produce them, and though of somewhat a
smaller leaf, yet altogether as good, apt to be civiliz’d, and made more
florid: From thence I have received many of their berries; so as it is a
shameful negligence, that we are no better provided of nurseries, of a
tree so choice, and universally acceptable: For so they may be rais’d
either of the seeds in October, or (with better success) by the suckers
and plants, which are treated after the same method, and in as great
abundance as the elm, like to which it should be cultivated. You may
know whether the seeds be prolific, by searching the husk; if biting, or
cutting it in sunder it be full and white, and not husky, as sometimes
we find the foreigners: Be sure to collect your seed in dry weather,
airing it in an open room, and reserving it in sand, (as has been
taught) till mid-February, when you may sow it in pretty strong, fresh
and loamy mould, kept shaded, and moist as the season requires, and
clear of weeds, and at the period of two years, plant them out, dress’d
and prun’d as discretion shall advise. But not only by the suckers and
layers, at the roots, but even by branches lopp’d from the head, may
this tree be propagated; and peeling off a little of the bark, at a
competent distance from the stem or arms, and covering it with loam
mingled with rich earth, they will shoot their fibers, and may be
seasonably separated: But to facilitate this and the like attempts, it
is advisable to apply a ligature above the place, when the sap is
ascending, or beneath it, when it (as they say vulgarly) descends. From
June to November you may lay them; the scrubs and less erect, do
excellently to thicken copp’ces, and will yield lusty shoots, and useful
fire-wood.
2. The lime-tree affects a rich feeding loamy soil; in such ground their
growth will be most for speed and spreading. They may be planted as big
as ones leg; their heads topp’d at about six or eight foot bole; thus it
will become (of all other) the most proper, and beautiful for walks, as
producing an upright body, smooth and even bark, ample leaf, sweet
blossom, the delight of bees, and a goodly shade at distance of
eighteen, or twenty five foot. They are also very patient of pruning;
but if it taper over much, some of the collateral boughs would be
spar’d, or cut off, to check the sap, which is best to be done about
Midsummer; and to make it grow upright, take off the prepondering
branches with discretion, and so you may correct any other tree, and
redress its obliquity.
The root in transplanting would not be much lopp’d; and this (says Mr.
Cook) is a good lesson for all young planted trees.
3. The Prince Elector did lately remove very great lime-trees out of one
of his forests, to a steep hill, exceedingly expos’d to the heat of the
sun, at Heidelberg; and that in the midst of summer: They grow behind
that strong tower on the south-west, and most torrid part of the
eminence; being of a dry, reddish barren earth; yet do they prosper
rarely well: But the heads were cut off, and the pits into which they
were transplanted, were (by the industry and direction of _Monsieur_ de
Son, a Frenchman, and admirable mechanician, who himself related it to
me) fill’d with a composition of earth and cow-dung, which was
exceedingly beaten, and so diluted with water, as it became almost a
liquid pap: It was in this, that he plunged the roots, covering the
surface with the turf: A singular example of removing so great trees at
such a season, and therefore by me taken notice of here expresly. Other
perfections of the tree (besides its unparallel’d beauty for walks) are
that it will grow in almost all grounds: That it lasts long; that it
soon heals its scars; that it affects uprightness; that it stoutly
resists a storm; that it seldom becomes hollow.
4. The timber of a well-grown lime is convenient for any use that the
willow is; but much to be preferr’d, as being both stronger, and yet
lighter; whence Virgil calls them _tilias leves_; and therefore fit for
yokes, and to be turn’d into boxes for the apothecaries; and Columella
commends _arculas tiliaceas_. And because of its colour, and easy
working, and that it is not subject to split, architects make with it
models for their designed buildings; and the carvers in wood, not only
for small figures, but large statues and intire histories, in bass, and
high relieve; witness (besides several more) the lapidation of St.
Stephen, with the structures and elevations about it: The trophies,
festoons, frutages, encarpa, and other sculptures in the frontoons,
freezes, capitals, pedestals, and other ornaments and decorations, (of
admirable invention and performance) to be seen about the choir of St.
Paul’s and other churches; royal palaces, and noble houses in city and
countrey. All of them, the works and invention of our Lysippus, Mr.
Gibbons; comparable, and for ought appears, equal to any thing of the
antients; having had the honour (for so I account it) to be the first
who recommended this great artist to his Majesty, Charles the II. I
mention it on this occasion, with much satisfaction. With the twigs,
they made baskets and cradles, and of the smoother side of the bark,
tablets for writing; for the antient _Philyra_ is but our _Tilia_; of
which Munting affirms, he saw a book made of the inward bark, written
about 1000 years since. Such another was brought to the Count of St.
Amant, Governor of Arras, 1662, for which there was given 8000 ducats by
the Emperor, and that it contain’d a work of Cicero, _De Ordinanda
Republica, & De Inveniendis Orationum Exordiis_: A piece inestimable,
never publish’d; is 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 mention’d by West-Indian travellers, especially in
Hispaniola, Java, &c. which not only exceed our largest paper for
breadth and length, and may be written on on both sides, but is
comparable to our best vellum. Bellonius says, that the Grecians made
bottles of the _tilia_, which they finely rozin’d within-side, so
likewise for pumps of ships, also lattices for windows: Shooemakers use
dressers of the plank to cut leather on, as not so hard as to turn the
edges of their knives; and even the coursest membrane, or slivers of the
tree growing ’twixt the bark and the main body, they now twist into
bass-ropes; besides, the truncheons make a far better coal for
gun-powder than that of alder it self; Scriblets for painters first
draughts are also made of its coals; and the extraordinary candor and
lightness, has dignify’d it above all the woods of our forest, in the
hands of the Right Honourable the White-Stave officers of His Majesty’s
Imperial Court. Those royal plantations of these trees in the parks of
Hampton-court, and St. James’s, will sufficiently instruct any man how
these (and indeed all other trees which stand single) are to be
govern’d, and defended from the injuries of beasts, and sometimes more
unreasonable creatures, till they are able to protect themselves. In
Holland (where the very high-ways are adorn’d with them) they frequently
clap three or four deal-boards (in manner of a close trunk) about them;
but it is not so well; because it keeps out the air, which should have
free access and intercourse to the bole, and by no means be excluded
from flowing freely about them, or indeed any other trees; provided
they are secur’d from cattel, and the violence of impetuous winds, &c.
as His Majesty’s are, without those close coffins, in which the
Dutch-men seem rather to bury them alive: In the mean time, is there a
more ravishing or delightful object, than to behold some intire streets,
and whole towns planted with these trees, in even lines before their
doors, so as they seem like cities in a wood? this is extreamly fresh,
of admirable effect against the epilepsie, for which the delicately
scented blossoms are held prevalent, and skreen the houses both from
winds, sun, and dust; than which there can be nothing more desirable
where streets are much frequented. For thus
The stately Lime, smooth, gentle, streight and fair,
(With which no other Dryad may compare)
With verdant locks, and fragrant blossoms deckt,
Does a large, ev’n, odorate shade project.{127:1}
_Diræ_ and curses therefore on those inhuman and ambitious tyrants, who,
not contented with their own dominions, invade their peaceful neighbour,
and send their legions, without distinction, to destroy and level to the
ground such venerable and goodly plantations, and noble avenues,
irreparable marks of their barbarity.
The distance for walks (as we said) may in rich ground, be twenty five
foot, in more ordinary soil, eighteen or twenty. For a most prodigious
tree of this kind, see Chap. 39. sect. 10.
The berries reduc’d to powder, cure the dysentery and stop blood at the
nose: The distill’d-water is good against the epilepsy, apoplexy,
vertigo, trembling of the heart, gravel; Schroder commends a mucilage of
the bark for wounds, _repellens urinam, & menses ciens_, &c. And I am
told, the juice of the leaves fixes colours.
FOOTNOTES:
{127:1}
Stat philyra; haud omnes formosior altera surgit
Inter hamadryades; mollissima, candida, lævis,
Et viridante comâ, & beneolenti flore superba,
Spargit odoratam latè, atque æqualiter umbram.
_Couleii_, l. 6, Pl.