124 EUPHORBIACEyE 



Both the older and modern poets have compared it to the pale aspect of man. 

 Chaucer says — 



"Wherewith the fire of jealousy up sterte 

 Within his brest, and hente him by the herte, 

 So woodly, that he like was to behold 

 The Box -tree, or the ashen ded and cold." 



Dryden thus renders a similar image — 



" He withers at his heart, and looks as wan 

 As the pale spectre of a nuirder'd man, 

 That pale turns yellow, and his face receives 

 The faded hue of sapless boxen leaves." 



Evelyn describes the luxtiriant growth of the Box on our hills in his day. 

 "These trees," he says, "rise naturally at Boxley, in Kent, and in the county 

 of Surrey, giving name to that chalky hill (near the famous Mole, or 

 Swallow) whither the ladies and gentlemen, and other Avater-drinkers from 

 the neighbouring Ebbisham Spaw, often resort during the heat of summer, 

 to walk, collation, and divert themselves in those antilex natural alleys and 

 shady recesses among the Box-trees, without taking any such offence at the 

 smell, which has of late banished it from our groves and gardens." He adds, 

 that " whole woods of these trees for divers miles in circuit, look beautiful in 

 winter on some of our highest hills in Surrey, and so singular, that the 

 observer could imagine himself in some other country than England." The 

 Box-tree still grows in plenty on Box-hill among the juniper bushes, but it is 

 not in nearly so great profusion now, for an immense number of the trees 

 have been cut down from time to time to supply wood for the blocks of the 

 engravers; and for many years this spot has contributed largely of this 

 valuable wood for this purpose. It now occurs without cultivation in a few 

 places only, and there is much reason for believing that the Box was originally 

 planted on all the hills of this kingdom where it once grew so freely. It is 

 not improbable that the Romans may have reared it for its use at civic or 

 religious festivals. One of our oldest English writers on plants. Turner, 

 says of it, when writing in 1551, "It groweth on the mountains of Germany 

 plentifully, wild, Avithout any setting ; but in England it groweth not by 

 itselfe, in any place that I know, though there is much in England." John 

 Ray and Gerard e, however, both considered it a native plant. 



The Box is wild in most parts of Europe, from Britain southwards ; and 

 in many parts of France and Switzerland it is very abundant as a thick 

 undergrowth among other trees, but not forming a forest by itself. It 

 abounds also in many countries of Asia ; and Poncet comments on the beauty 

 of the Box-trees which grew on the banks of the rivers in Abyssinia, and 

 which he describes as of surprising thickness, and as tall as beech-trees. It 

 is a favourite tree of the Asiatics, who call it Shumshad. It is plentiful on 

 Mount Caucasus, and extends even to the Himalayan Mountains, where it 

 grows to a great size. The Box is mentioned in Scripture, and modern 

 botanists believe the rendering of our early translators to Ije coiTect. Thus 

 the Prophet Isaiah says with reference to the future Temple : "The glory of 

 Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the Box 

 together ;" and again, " I will set in the desert the fir-tree, and the pine, 



