| (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 LinnÆus.
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