SHORT NOTES 78 



Aspleninm siveCeterach, Equisetiim nudum G. asperum [E. hyemaJe] , 

 Lathyrus vicineformis &c [/.. pahistris] , Eryiigium vulgaie seu medi- 

 terraiiiii [E. oimpcstir] , with other rare phmts tho no strangers to 

 you, in y" company of one Mr. Barker of Beccles an industrious 

 botanist who without banter knows to a yard square of ground 

 where every rare phint of y*" Island grows, having search'd it for 

 these severall years past." — James Britten. 



The Box in Britain. — Dunstable is mentioned as a locality for 

 Box on p. 29. The Box grows apparently wild on the chalk downs 

 near Ashridge and Berkhampstead, some six or seven miles from 

 here. I believe there are some old trees, but I have not been for some 

 years. Near by, at the foot of the chalk hills, is Boxmoor. The 

 Ashridge Hills are geologically similar with the Box Hill of the 

 South Downs. The local name near Ashridge and Ivanhoe is 

 *'Box Hill." The Box district here is chiefly in Hertfordshire, 

 although the Box is not included in Mr. R. A. Pryor's flora of the 

 county. There is a place in Beds on the top of Dunstable Downs 

 (chalk), about four miles from here, near Whipsuade, named Box- 

 stead, the local pronunciation of which is Buck-stead. There is a 

 place named *'Boxe" in Domesday Book for Herts, sect, xxviii. ; 

 I see by maps that this was in S. Beds or N. Herts, as Boxe is 

 associated with Craulai and Westone (Crawley and Westoning) in 

 S. Beds, and Oflelei (Offley), close by, in N. Herts. At the latter 

 place there are chalk hills with woods, identical with the hills and 

 woods where the Box now grows near Ashridge and Berkhampstead, 

 but whether Box occurs on these hills now I do not know. Chauncy, 

 Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, vol. ii. p. 126, 1826, identifies 

 the Boxe of Domesday with Box and Boxbury, and says: — " Tiiis 

 was a Vill or Parish, which was scituated between the Parishes of 

 Stevenage, Chivesfield, and Walkerne ; there was anciently a 

 Church to the same, which was erected in a Field on the Hill near 

 the Woods, now called the Church-yard, where the Foundations 

 may be seen ; and this Parish was called Box from a great wood, 

 which retains this name to this day." On p. 128 he refers to Box- 

 bury : — "As to the other Moyety of this Mannor, and Tythes of 

 Boxbury King H. VIII granted them," &c. Two miles S.E. of 

 Boxwood is Box Hall. In vol. i. p. 43, under Pipe Rolls of Edw. L, 

 the personal names of Ralph Boxted and Ralph de Boxted, 1288, 

 occur. The place-name Boxstead occurs on Dunstable Downs. 

 In Chauncy's Map of Herts, 1700, he gives the place-name Box, 

 not Box-wood, two miles E. of Stevenage. A farmer here, from 

 Pirton, N.W. border of Herts, says there is a Box-orchard there 

 with large box-trees. I have noticed that Box is pronounced bux 

 by the ru^tics. Other Latni forms occur in this district, as the comp 

 (tiie plain) — a field called Caiiipum downum or dinium (= field at 

 base of down), itc. Tiie six incii Ordnance mnp is very inferior 

 to the old one-inch, for place-names. — W. G. Smith. 



Mosses of North-east Yorkshire, " V.-C. 62" (Journ. Bot. 

 1900, 484-9). — I am much obliged to Mr. Cocks for pointing out a 

 mistake in this paper. It arose from a persistent idea I have had 



