The European lime (T. Europﾜa) is distinguished from the American sorts, by its smaller and more regularly cordate and rounded leaves. Unlike our native species, the flowers are not furnished with inner scale-like petals. The foliage is rather deeper in hue than the native sorts, and the branches of the head rather more regular in form and disposition. There are two pretty varieties of the English lime which are well known in this country, viz. the Red-barked, or corallina (var. rubra), with red branches; and the Golden-barked (var. aurea), with handsome yellow branches. These trees are peculiarly beautiful in winter, when a few of them mingled with other deciduous trees make a pleasing variety of coloring in the absence of foliage. The broad-leaved European lime is the finest for shade and ornament. The whitish foliage of Tilia alba, which probably is also a variety, has a beautiful appearance, somewhat like the Abele tree, in a gentle breeze.
