* * * * *

Yours is, she said, the noblest hue,
And yours the statelier mien,
And till a third surpasses you
Let each be deemed a Queen."--COWPER.

LIME.

(1) _Ariel._

All prisoners, sir,
In the Line-grove which weather-fends your cell.

_Tempest_, act v, sc. 1 (9).

(2) _Prospero._

Come, hang them on this Line.

_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (193).

(3) _Stephano._

Mistress Line, is not this my jerkin?

_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (235).

It is only in comparatively modern times that the old name of Line or
Linden, or Lind,[146:1] has given place to Lime. The tree is a doubtful
native, but has been long introduced, perhaps by the Romans. It is a
very handsome tree when allowed room, but it bears clipping well, and so
is very often tortured into the most unnatural shapes. It was a very
favourite tree with our forefathers to plant in avenues, not only for
its rapid growth, but also for the delicious scent of its flowers; but
the large secretions of honey-dew which load the leaves, and the fact
that it comes late into leaf and sheds its leaves very early, have
rather thrown it out of favour of late years. As a useful tree it does
not rank very high, except for wood-carvers, who highly prize its light,
easily-cut wood, that keeps its shape, and is very little liable to
crack or split either in the working or afterwards. Nearly all Grinling
Gibbons' delicate carving is in Lime wood. To gardeners the Lime is
further useful as furnishing the material for bast or bazen mats,[147:1]
which are made from its bark, and interesting as being the origin of the
name of Linnaeus.

FOOTNOTES:

[146:1] "Be ay of chier as light as lyf on Lynde."--CHAUCER, _The
Clerkes Tale_, _l'envoi_.

[147:1] "Between the barke and the woode of this tree, there bee thin
pellicles or skins lying in many folds together, whereof are made bands
and cords called Bazen ropes."--PHILEMON HOLLAND'S _Pliny's Nat. Hist._
xvi. 14. The chapter is headed "Of the Line or Linden Tree."

LING.

_Gonzalo._

Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of
barren ground, Ling, Heath, brown Furze, anything.

_Tempest_, act i, sc. 1 (70).

If this be the correct r