LIME-TREE : Economical Uses. The wood of the European Lime, which is of a yellowish-white colour, is close-grained, soft, light, smooth, and not liable to be attacked by insects. It is used for the sounding-boards of pianofortes ; for many articles of cabinet-work and domestic utensils ; for small boxes to contain perfumery and drugs ; and for some of the better kinds of children's toys. Curriers, glovers, and shoemakers find lime to be the best wood for their cutting-boards. The colour, grain, softness, and surface texture have given lime-wood a high favour among carvers; many of the fine carvings at Windsor Castle, Chatsworth, and Trinity College Library at Cambridge, are in this wood. Iiollar, the wood-engraver, is said to have used lime-tree for his blocks.
Tho charcoal obtained from the lime ranks next to that from hazel for gunpowder. Baskets and cradles are sometimes made from the twigs. The bark is twisted into rope, twine, and matting, in some countries. The Ileimaian peasants often make the soles of shoes with the outer bark, while the bark of the young shoots is woven into a material for the uppers. They also manage to mako baskets and boxes with strips of the inner bark ; and employ the outer bark of the older trees as a substitute for tiles and slates for their huts. In
various countries time fibres of the inner bark are so prepared as to be used as a substitute for hemp and flax in making fishing-nets, cloth, fie. The matting, so much used by upholsterers and gardeners, comprises, among other kinds, that which is made in Sweden and Runde from lime-bark ; the pieces are steeped in water till the Layers separate freely • and thole layers, when separated into ribands or strips,and are woven or interlaced into matting. The leaves of the lime-tree are used as cattlo-fooel in some parts of Europe. The sup will yield ringer, but not to a profitable extent. A sort of cocoa has been prepared from the fruit. The honey procured by bees from the flowers of the limo-tree is said to excel all others in delicacy. It is an important article of commerce in Lithuania, Galicia, Transylvania • the Ukraine, Moldavia, and the neighbouring parts of Europe ; and the choice liqueur rosoglio is mainly prepared from it.