Genus BUXUS, Tourn. 



Euphorbiaceae. 



Syst. Nal. 



Buxus, 



Bais, 



Buchsbaum, 

 Bosjolo, Bussolo, 

 Buxo, 

 Box, 



Monoccia Tetrandna. 

 Syat. Lin. 



Synonymes. 



Or Authors. 



France. 



Germany. 



Italy. 



Portugal. 



Britai.n, Spain, and Anglo-America. 



Derivations. The word Buxus and its derivatives, come from the Greek puknos, close or firm ; in reference to the hardness 

 and closeness of the wood of tlie box-tree. 



Generic Characters. Flowers in axillary groups ; unisexual in effect, but the male flowers have a rudi- 

 ment of a pistil ; those of both sexes borne on one plant. Calyx of male flowers with 4 minute leaves 

 Stamens 4, inserted under the rudiment of a pistil. Female flowers singly, at the tip of groups of male 

 ones. Calyx as in the male. Ovary sessile, roundish, of 3 cells, and 2 ovules in each cell. Styles 3. 

 Stigmas 3. Fruit a regma, leathery, beaked with the styles ; consisting of 3 incomplete cells, that 

 open down the centre, ind divide the style, and of 3 valves that bear the incomplete dissepiments in 

 their centres. Seeds 2 in a cell, pendulous, both enclosed in the endocarpial lining of the cell, which, 

 after the seed is ripe, disparts elastically, to admit of, and conduce to, their dispersion. Nees Von Esen- 

 beck, Genera. 



^IIE genus Buxus embraces low evergreen trees or shrubs, with 

 shining coriaceous leaves, and greenish-yellow flowers; natives of 

 Europe, and the temperate parts of Asia; of easy culture in any 

 soil that is tolerably dry; and propagated freely from cuttings, or 

 by seeds. There are two species indigenous to Europe, namely, 

 13uxus sempcrvirens, and balearica, the latter of which is a native 

 of the Balearic Islands, where, according to the " Nouveau Du Hamel,'' it some- 

 times grows to the height of eighty feet. It is also found in great abundance on all 

 rocky surfaces both of Europe and Asiatic Turkey. It forms a very handsome 



tree, with 



a straight, 



smooth trunk. Its leaves, which are three times as large 



as those of the Buxus sempcrvirens, when fully exposed to the air, are of a nuich 

 paler green than that species ; but when they are grown in the shade, they are of an 

 intensely deep-green. The wood, which is of a brighter yellow colour than that 

 of the common box, is imported into Europe and America, from ronstantiuople, for 

 the use of wood-engravers ; but its grain is coarser, and less compact, and conse- 

 quently of less value. It has been asserted that the honey of Corsica is rendered 

 poisonous from the bees feeding on the flowers of this tree. 



To the same natural order belongs the celebrated lallow-troe. (Stillingia scbi- 

 fera,) a native of China, and introduced into Carolina, in 177:^, together with tiie 

 upland rice, by Mr. John Bradley Blake, of Canton. The seeds, which were 

 planted by Dr. Alexander Garden, of Charleston, flourished, and from that source 

 were obtained all the trees of this description now growing in the .soiithtTii states 

 of the union. An oil may be expressed from the kernels of the fruit, which 

 hardens by cold, to the consistence of common tallow, and by boiling, becomes 

 as hard as bees'-wax. 



