Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/306

* LIME-TBEE. 276 LIMITATION OP ACTIONS. flower part of which adheres to the flower-stalk. The wood is lijjhl and soft, toufjli, durable, and particulaily suitahle for carved work, and is much used hy turners. The charcoal made of it is often used for tooth-powder, fur medicinal purposes, for crayons, and for the nianufaeture of gunpowder. Tlic iihrous inner bark is used for making ropes, mats, and other phiiled work. It is also used as a healing application to wounds and sores, being very mucilaginous, and abound- ing in a Idand sap. The leaves and in early spring the twigs are in some countries used as food for cattle, but cows fed on them produce bad butter. The (lowers have an agreeable odor, and abound in nectar much sought after by bees. The celebrated nectar, much valued for medicinal use and for making liqueurs, is the product of great lime forests near Kovno, in Lithuania. The seeds abound in a fixed sweet oil. The Euro- pean lime or lindeti {Tiliii cordatn) often at- tain a large size, particularly in rich alluvial soils. Some botanists distinguish a small-leaved kind {Tilia piirvi folia) and a large-leaved (Tilia rubra) as different species; others regard them as mere varieties. The hooded or capuchin lime is an interesting mountainous variety. The lime- tree is often planted for shade in towns; and the principal street of Berlin, is called Unler den L'mden, from the rows of lime-trees which line it. The American lime (Tilia Americana), common- ly called whitewood or basswood in America, has larger leaves than the European species. It aliounds from New Brunswick to Virginia, and in the elevated parts of Alabama and Georgia, westward to Jlinnesota and Texas. It reaches a height of 80 feet or more and 4 feet in diameter. The wood is fine, close-grained and soft, easily worked, and is extensively used for furniture, car- riage-boxes, turning, etc. The tree is consid- ered especially valuable for street planting, as it is hardy, resists drought, and is less liable to injury than many others. A similar species is the downy basswood {Tilia platyphyUos), which •occurs from New York to Florida and westward through Indiana and Illinois to Texas. It is similar to the above in its properties and char- acteristics. The species of basswood have been tried for paper-pulp, but the quality furnished was considered inferior to that obtained from spruce. LIMFJOBD, lim'fyord. A narrow passage extending from the Cattegat to the North Sea and cutting ofl' the northern part of .lutland from the mainland. LIMIC'OLJE (Neo-Lat., from Lat. Umus, mud + colore, to inhabit). A large order or suborder of birds, often known as the 'plover-snipe' group, dilfering from other wading birds chiefly in their breeding habits. They lay few eggs, usually four, and the j'oung when hatched are at once able to run about and look out for themselves, The body is rounded or depressed, never notably compressed, as in the rails. The meml>crs of most species are of small size, and are usually found in open places near bodies of water. They feed on insects and worms, and other small animals, for the capture of which their hing, slender, and sen- sitive bills are admirably fitted. The order is a large one and includes about a dozen families found in all parts of the world. The best known of these and the most t.ypical are the plovers (Charadriida") . the snipes, sandpipers, curlews, etc. (Seolopacid.T) . and the avocets (Recurviros- tridse). The other families are the pratincoles (Glareolida>), confined to the Old World; the thick-knees (Gidicnemida^) , with eight species, all but one of which are Old World forms; the jacanas (Parridip), rail-like birds of both hemi- spheres; the sheath-bills (Chionida>), remark- able pure white birds of Kerguelen and the Crozet Islands, two species of which are known; the Thinocorid;p, a family of half a dozen gallina- like South American birds; the crab-plovers (Dromadidie) , only one species being known, an inhabitant of India and Africa ; the Haematopo- didip or oyster-catchers, with six or eight cosmo- politan species; the Phalaropodidae, with three boreal species, easily recognized by their lobate feet; and lastly and doubtfully the Old World bustards (Otididnp). which arc perhaps more nearly related to the cranes. See Plates of Beach-Bibds, and of Shore-Birds. LIMITATION OF ACTIONS (Lat. limita- tio, a bounding, from liniitarc, to bound, from Lat. limes, boundary; connected with limen. threshold). In law, the limited period of time allowed to a party in which to commence an action after his cause of action has accrued. Ow- ing to the difficulty of preserving evidence for long periods of time, and to prevent the prosecu- tion of claims not well founded, sound policy re- quires that some limit should be placed upon the time within which actions may be brought. Equity, recognizing the justice of such a doctrine, early refused relief to a plaintiff when guilty of laches (q,v. ). but this limitation of actions at law is purely statutory. Statutes of limitation were enacted in the time of Edward L and Henry VIII,. and these were revised by the Statute of Limitation passed in the twenty-first ,vear of James I. (1624). which, with slight modification, has been reenacted in most of the States of the United States. The following are the more important periods of limitation which, w^ith some variation, have been adopted in England and the United States.