settle upon it, it is speedily attacked by the worm. When kept dry, and free from this attack, it will last a considerable time; but, exposed to humidity, it is one of the most perishable of trees.

The maple forms a very pleasing shade, from the largeness of its leaves; but the twisting of its branches is injurious to its picturesque effect. The constant excoriation of its bark produces a variety of hues, which give colour to any landscape in which the tree is introduced.

The sugar maple grows plentifully in the United States; and from the sap of it the inhabitants make a considerable quantity of sugar, which, though inferior both in the grain and in strength to that which is produced by the cane, granulates better than that of the beet-root, or any other vegetable, the cane excepted. The sugar-maple is a smaller tree than the maple of this country; and it is not much in repute as timber, although from its abundance it is a good deal used in America,-the wood, for domestic

purposes, and the bark, as a blue dye, and as an ingredient in the manufacture of ink.

February, March, or April, according to the state of the season, is the time when the maple is tapped for the preparation of sugar. A perforation is made by an auger, about two inches into the tree, slanting upwards; into this a cane or wooden pipe is inserted, and a vessel placed to receive the sap. The quantity afforded by a tree varies both with the tree and the season; the most favourable season being when there is the greatest difference between the heat of the day and that of the night. From two to three gallons may be about the daily average afforded by a single tree; but some trees have yielded more than twenty gallons in a day, and others not above a pint. The process by which maple juice is boiled and clarified into sugar, does not differ materially from that used for cane juice in the West Indies. The juice should be as recently drawn as possible; for if it stand more than twenty-four hours, it is apt to undergo the vinous and the acetous fermentation; by which processes, the saccharine quality of the juice being destroyed, sugar can no longer be extracted. From the quantity of saccharine matter in the juice of this maple, there is no doubt that it could be fermented into wine, and that a spirit could be distilled from it. There is saccharine matter in the sap of the common maple, but it does not granulate well, and would not repay the expense of extraction.

LIME OR LINDEN.

Of the Lime Tree (Tilia) there are ten species, six of which are natives of Europe-the others being Americans; though they have been all introduced as objects of curiosity.

Of the European Lime (Tilia Europea) there are six varieties; but the most valuable, and the one which is most frequently met with, is the Common

Lime Tree (communis). It is an exceedingly beautiful tree, grows fast, and attains a very great size. It is not supposed to be a native of England, but mention is made of it growing here, as early as the middle of the sixteenth century. In Switzerland and Germany there are lime trees of an enormous size; and one, in the county of Norfolk, is mentioned by Sir Thomas Brown as being ninety feet high, with a trunk forty-eight feet in circumference, at a foot and a half from the ground.

The lime bears the smoke of cities better than any other tall-growing forest-tree; and for this reason the shaded walks about the cities on the Continent, more especially in Germany, are planted with it. It has other advantages: the trunk is smooth; the leaves are of a most beautifully delicate green; the flowers throw out a very agreeable fragrance; and it is not so liable to get unsightly, from wounds and decayed branches, as almost any other tree. But its leaves come late in the spring, and they begin to fall early, -as early sometimes as the month of July.

Though a soft and weak timber, the lime is valu

able for many purposes. It is delicately white, and of an uniform colour, and therefore it is admirably adapted for all light works that are to be partially painted, and then varnished. Though it is very close in the grain, it blunts the tool less than any other timber; and as it has the same property as maple, of not warping, and even in a higher degree, it is used for cutting-boards and for the keys of musical instruments. It also stands the tool well, and is called, by way of eminence," the carver's tree," being used by the carvers and gilders for most parts of their wooden ornaments. At iron foundries, the ornaments for the fronts of stoves and other purposes are all first cut in lime-tree, and some of them are moulded from the carving, though casts are more generally taken in lead, as being more durable, and admitting of a smoother surface. The exquisite carvings with which Grindling Gibbons ornamented so many of the churches and palaces in England, in the time of Charles II., are all executed in lime-tree. Lime, though softer and more easily cut than beech or maple, is not so much affected either by the worm or by rot.

The bark of the lime-tree is an article of commerce. As the trunk of the tree is tall and free from knots, the bark may be stripped off in long pieces. These are macerated in water till the fibrous layers separate; and are then divided into narrow slips, called bast, which, in the northern parts of Europe, are plaited into ropes, and worked into mats. The mats in which flax and hemp are imported from the Baltic, and which, in this country, are in constant use by gardeners for covering plants from the weather, and tying them up, and also for market and tool baskets, are made of bast, or the bark of the lime-tree. Though the lime be not so great a favourite in this country as it was in former times, it may very fairly be doubted whether the pop

M

ars, and other soft, fast-growing trees that have been substituted for it, are a change for the better. The lime is not a tree for bleak and cold lands. It thrives best in rich loam, and in warm and rather moist situation; and though the average age to which it will grow has not been accurately determined, yet, from the healthy nature of the tree, and the great size that it has arrived at, it must be considerableupwards of a hundred years.

Horse Chesnut-Esculus hippocastanum.

The Common Horse Chesnut (Esculus hippocastanum) is a native of the northern or central parts of Asia, from which it was introduced into Europe about the middle of the sixteenth century. Its progress can be traced from parts of Northern Asia to Constantinople, thence to Vienna, and thence to Paris, where the first tree was planted in 1615. It is very beautiful in the arrangement of its branches, which give it the form of a paraboloid; in the shape of its leaves; and in