'Return the major tick lines as a list of Line2D instances'

def get_majorticklines(self):

    lines = []
    ticks = self.get_major_ticks()
    for tick in ticks:
        lines.append(tick.tick1line)
        lines.append(tick.tick2line)
    return cbook.silent_list(u'Line2D    ticklines', lines)
