Part 9

The Lime or Linden (1) is one of the most familiar trees in our large towns. It is very hardy, and you find it planted by the side of our smoky streets, where it seems to thrive in spite of the clouds of sooty dust that cover its delicate leaves.

But if you wish to know what a Lime tree really looks like at its best, then you must find one growing in some country park where there is space, and fresh air, and plenty of sunshine; then you will see how beautiful a tree it can be. The Lime is a tall, stately tree. It has many slender branches closely covered with leaves, which have each a long stalk. In old trees the branches often bend down close to the ground, but the sunshine always succeeds in finding its way under the Lime tree branches, and it flickers on the grass as it never does beneath the Beech tree boughs.

In winter the Lime tree is difficult to recognise, although there is one feature you may notice: its bare stems and twigs are very black against the sky, and many of the branches hang so awkwardly that they look as if they were dead. But go to the park in spring, and at once you will know which is the Lime tree. Every little twig is coloured a delicate shade of olive green tinged with crimson, and bears many small oval buds (3) which are red like rubies. In May these ruby buds burst open, and their crimson coverings fall to the ground, disclosing the pale emerald-green leaf that is tightly folded within. The leaves (2) soon open in the sunshine, and you see that each is shaped like a large pointed heart, and that the two sides of the heart are uneven.

The edge of the leaf is cut into sharp teeth, and all over it a network of fine veins is spread. When the leaf is still young you find tufts of soft, downy hairs on the under-side, and at first each leaf hangs straight down from its stalk as if it had not strength to rise and face the sunlight. But they soon raise themselves, and gradually their pale green colour darkens, though the Lime tree leaf never becomes so dark, nor is it as glossy, as the leaf of the Beech tree.

In September the Lime tree leaves turn pale yellow: rather a colourless yellow, very different from the rich gold and red-brown of the Beech, and they fall with the first touch of frost.

You may sometimes find leaves which are marked with large black, sooty-looking spots. These spots are caused by a tiny insect which has made its home on the leaf.

If you sit beneath the branches of the Lime on a warm summer day you will hear the constant hum of myriads of bees which are buzzing round the tree. They are gathering honey from the Lime tree flowers, whose delicious perfume is scenting the air.

From the spot where next year’s leaf bud will grow there hangs a long stalk; at the end of this stalk there droops a cluster of flowers (4), and at the base of each flower cluster stands a long slender leaf called a bract. This bract looks like a pale yellow wing, and is covered all over with a network of fine veins.

The flowers have five greeny white petals and five pale green sepals. In the centre is a small seed-vessel like a tiny pea, and from it there rises a slender green pillar which ends in five sticky points. Closely surrounding this seed-vessel is a ring of many stamens. Each stamen has a white stalk with an orange-coloured head, and among these stamens lie the drops of sweet juice which attract the bees.

The stamen dust is ripe before the sticky points of the seed-vessel on the same plant are ready for it; but the bees, when they bend down to suck the honey juice, brush against the ripe stamen heads, and their backs become covered with the fine powder. Away they fly to the flowers on another Lime tree, and the powder will probably be rubbed off on one where the seed-vessel is ready to receive it.

When the seed is ripe you see many little downy fruit-balls (5), each hanging from a slender stalk. In warm countries this seed ripens into a small nut which is ground down and made into a kind of chocolate. But it never ripens in England.

In some countries there are large forests of Lime trees, and the air is filled with the busy hum of the bees. The peasants make large holes in the tree trunks, and these holes the bees fill with honeycomb, which the peasants easily remove and sell. This Lime tree honey is much prized for its fine flavour.

The wood of the Lime tree is not hard enough for building purposes, but it is greatly in demand for carving. It is light and soft, and much of the beautiful wood decoration in our churches is carved from Lime tree wood. It does not easily become worm-eaten as do so many of our harder woods.

We read that in old days the soldiers’ shields were made of Lime tree wood, as the blow of a weapon was deadened when striking it.

THE ELM

1. Elm Tree 2. Leaf Spray 3. Ready Buds 4. Flower Spray 5. Stamen Flower enlarged 6. Seed Flower enlarged 7. Fruit Clusters and Wing]

The inner bark of the tree has always been valuable. From it are made those mats of light brown grass which gardeners use to protect their delicate plants during winter; and these tails of dried-looking grass with which they tie bunches of flowers instead of using string, are also made from the Lime tree bark. This inner bark is called “bass” or “bast,” and is chiefly made in Russia and Sweden.

It is from this bass or string that the tree gets its name, which is not really Lime, but Line or Linden, and is so called in other countries. We in Britain have got into the bad habit of mispronouncing the word. The true Lime tree is a cousin of the Orange and Lemon trees, and bears a yellow fruit called Limes. But the Linden tree is no relation of this Lime tree, and is so called because it is the tree from which we get gardener’s dried string or line, and we must remember that our popular name is a wrong one, and not the true name of the tree.

PLATE VIII

THE COMMON ELM AND WYCH OR BROAD-LEAVED ELM

There are two kinds of Elm which grow abundantly in this country, and both are lofty, noble trees. The Common Elm (1) you will recognise easily, because its rough black trunk is clothed right down to the ground with a dense mass of brushwood. This brushwood is really a forest of small branches, and shoots, and twigs which spring from the Elm tree root; and if you separate some of these young shoots and plant them alone they will grow into young Elm tree saplings.

In winter you will always know the Common Elm by its brushwood clothing, and in early spring, in March, after there have been a few sunny days, you will see tiny green leaf buds opening in this brushwood sheaf before the large upper branches show any signs of life.

The Common Elm is one of our tallest trees. It has a thick rough trunk, on which are many large gnarled bosses or knobs. The bark of the tree is very rugged and is covered with many deep furrows.

The branches of this Elm do not grow gracefully in sweeping curves like those of the Ash tree; they have a dwarf, zig-zag appearance, and often they are twisted and knotted.

The young twigs that grow on these branches are short and tiny, a network of little bushy sprays growing close to the branch, and their bark is downy and corky when it is young, but becomes hard as the season advances.

In early spring these tiny twigs bear many small scaly buds (3) like beads. These beads open very early, before the end of April, and from each there bursts a bunch of flowers (4). What you notice first in this flower tuft is the crowd of reddish stamens with large purple heads. But if you gently pull to pieces one of these flower bunches, you will find that the stamens are not growing loose, but that they are held together in groups of five or more, in a dark green or purplish vase (5). This vase is funnel-shaped, and widens out round the mouth into four scallops. The oval seed-vessel (6) is at the bottom, hidden from sight. Do not forget to notice that in the Elm tree the stamens and seed-vessel grow close together in one flower.

The stamens soon shrivel and fall off, and their place is taken by bunches of flat green wings (7), each with a tiny knob in the centre, which is the fruit. These green shields, or wings, serve the same purpose as the keys or wings of the Ash tree. They are thin and light like paper, and in the Common Elm each shield is deeply notched at one end, almost to the centre seed.

When the seed is ripe the wind blows these bunches of papery shields away from the twigs, and they are carried long distances.