LIME, or LINDEN, Tilia, Et genus of trees of the natural order tiliacew, natives of Europe, the n. of Asia, and North America. The species are very similar; graceful, umbrageous trees; with deciduous, heart-shaped, serrated leaves, and cymes or panicles of rather small yellowish flowers; each cyme or panicle accompanied with a large, oblong, yellowish, membranous bractea, with netted veins, the lower part of which adheres to the flower-stalk. The wood is light and soft, but tough, durable, and partic ularly suitable for carved work. It is much used by turners, and for making pill-boxes. The charcoal made of it is often used for tooth-powder, for medicinal purposes, for cray ons, and for the manufacture of gunpowder. The use of the fibrous inner bark for making ropes, mats, and other plaited work, is noticed in the article BAST. It is also used as a healing application to wounds and sores, being very mucilaginous, and abound ing in a bland sap. The leaves are in some countries used as food for cattle, but cows fed on them produce bad butter. The flowers have an agreeable odor, and abound in honey, much sought after by bees. The celebrated Kowno honey, much valued for medi cinal use and for making liqueurs, is the produce of great lime forests near Kowno, in Lithuania. The infusion and distilled water of the dried flowers are gently sudorific and
antispasmodic. The former is in France a popular remedy for catarits. The seeds abound in a fixed sweet oil.—The EUROPEAN LIME, or LrynEN (T. Europma), often attains a large size, particularly in rich alluvial soils. Some botanists distinguish a small-leaved kind (T. parrifolia or microphylla) and a large-leaved (T. grandifolia) as dif ferent species; others regard them as mere varieties. ' The Hoonun or CAPUCHIN LIME is an interesting monstrous variety. The lime tree is often planted for shade in towns; and the principal street of Berlin is called Unter den Linden, from the rows of lime trees which line it. The lime is a very doubtful native of Britain, although indigenous on the continent from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. In Britain, the lime tree is gen erally propagated by layers.—The AMERICAN Limn (T. Americana, or T. ylabra), com monly called BASSWOOD in America, has larger leaves than the European species. It abounds on the shores of lakes Erie and Ontario. Other species take its place in inore western and more southern regions.