3VIERCURIALIS 439 



2. Ock. Near Uffington as an escape. 



3. Pang. Streatley, Xeu-bould, not wild. 



i. Kennet. Certainly wild, and perhaps indigenous in several places 

 in and near the parish of Ufton, near Reading, springing np 

 in dry stony thickets, periodically for a year or two after the 

 bushes have been cut, and till choked by briars,. &c.. Rev. Dr. 

 Beeke in But. Guide, 27, 1805. Naturalized on several banks in 

 the same neighbourhood, Lyson's Magna Brit. 1806. Also in J^Iavofs 

 Agr. Berks and Sm. Engl. Fl. Abundant there in 1896. 



5. Loddon. About cottages near Park Place, Stanton. Shinfield in 

 thicket, Tu/nail, probably an escape. Sindlesham. Railway 

 near Maidenhead. In both cases escaped from cultivation. 



E. LatJnjris is recorded as a more or less naturalized plant for Oxford,. 

 Surrey, Hants, and \Yilts. 



BUX.US, Linn. Gren. n. 934 (Toumefort, Inst. t. 345). 



*B. sEMPEBviRExs, Linn. Sp. PI. 983 (1753). Box. 



Comp, Cyb. Br. 558. Syme, E. B. viii. 95, t. 1252. Nyman, 646. Fl. Oxf. 260. 



Alien. Shrubberies, pleasure grounds, &c. Shrub. April-May. 



' The last remains of Boxgrove in Sulham parish near Reading, whence the 

 country probably took its name, were grubbed up about forty years ago,' 

 Gough/s Camden. 155, 1789. 



Prof. C. C. Babington, Jan. 28, 1853, sent a note to the Pbytologist Club as 

 follows : ' Mr. Watson, in his Cifbele, ii. 366, appears very much inclined to 

 consider the Box-tree as not originally a native of England. The following 

 extract from the begmning of Asser's Life of King Alfred appears to show 

 that it was plentiful in Berkshire 1000 years since. His words are, " Berroc- 

 scire ; quae paga taliter vocatur a ' berroc ' sylva ubi buxus abundantissune 

 nascitur." ' See Phi/t. iv. (1853) 873. 



In the edition of Camden published in 1610, it states that ' Asterius Mene- 

 vensis deriveth the name [of the county] from a certaine wood called Berroc, 

 where grew good store of Box.' 



At Buckland there are some very fine specimens of the Box, and it is also 

 well grown at Besilsleigh, Kingston Bagpuze, and at Park Place, where 

 Mr. Stanton tells me it reproduces itself from seeds in the woods. In JIavor's 

 Agr. Berks it is said to grow near Wallingford. 



The Box is a possible native of Surrey at Boxbill, and on the Chilterns 

 near Velvet Lawn and near Dunstable, Bucks. In the other bordering 

 counties it is certainly introduced. 



MERCURIAIilS, Linn. Gen. n. 998 (Tournefort, Inst. t. 308). 

 M. perennis, Linn. Sp. PI. 1035 (1753). Log's Meixury. 



Top. Bot. 366. Syme, E. B. viii. 114, t. 1268. Nyman, 647. Fl. Oxf. 260. 

 Native. Sylvestral. Woods, thickets, hedgerows. Common and 



generally distributed, covering extensive areas of our woods which 



are situated on a stiff soil. P. January 26 -May. 

 First record. Mercvrie. The male and the Female grow in all woods 



about Oxford especially in Merley Wood, MS. in Lyte's Herball, 1660. 



Published as M. perennis in Mavor's Agr. Berks, 1809. where i^ is 



