240 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



The anthers, ovate to arrow-shaped, are didymous. 

 The ovary is round. The capsule is ovoid, stalkless, 

 three-horned, hard, wrinkled, three-celled, with two 

 black seeds in each cell. 



In height the Box, when well-grown, reaches a 

 height of 15 ft or more. It flowers between April 

 and June, and is a perennial shrub. 



Box, being monoecious, cross-pollination must be 

 effected by an outside agency. It is thus wind- 

 pollinated. In the male and female flowers honey, 

 which is exposed, is secreted. The flowers are 

 visited by bees for pollen, and as the Box flowers 

 early it may be pollinated to some extent by insects. 

 The pollen is dry and dusty, and when the hive-bee 

 visits the flower it wets it with honey and brushes it 

 on to its hind legs. The stigma ripens in advance 

 of the anthers. 



The fruit opens explosively. The inner layer of 

 the pericarp separates from the outer. The seeds 

 are shot out of the capsule, the valves twisting 

 inwards, then outwards. 



The Box is called Dwarf Box, the common form 

 in gardens, Box-tree, Bush-tree, Dudgeon. As to 

 the last name Gerard says '' Turners and cutlers, if 

 I mistake not the matter, do call this Wood Dudgeon, 

 wherewith they make dudgeon-hafted daggers." 



In the Roman period a topearius was one who was 

 employed to cut and clip Box, hence the name topiary. 

 A friend of Julius Caesar, at the beginning of the first 

 century, invented this art. There was a revival of 



