1334 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART Il. 
a French writer, “ has the advantage of taking any form that may be wished, 
under the hands of the gardener. Here it displays a niche cut in an ap- 
parently solid green bank ; there, an arbour impenetrable to the rays of the 
sun. On one side it covers a wall with a tapestry of continual verdure, and 
on the other it clothes a palisade: now it divides the walks of a garden, 
and now it marks out the figure of a parterre. In all cases, it presents a most 
agreeable verdure to the eyes, and preserves the idea of cheerfulness even in 
winter, when almost every other tree appears mourning for the absence of the 
sun.” (Nouv, Cours. dAgri., tom. iii. p. 276.) It grows slowly, rarely making 
shoots of more than 6 in. or 8in. annually. But the tree is of great longevity ; 
and so extremely hardy, that it is the only evergreen that will stand in the 
open air, without protection, in the gardens of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. 
Geography. The box is found wild throughout Europe and Asia, between 
37° and 52° of n. lat., on mountains, and spreading as undergrowth among other 
trees, but never forming forests entirely by itself. The largest collections of 
wild box trees in Europe are in the Forest of Ligny in France, and in that of St. 
Claude on Mount Jura; but in both cases the box trees are mixed with trees 
of other species. Box trees are also found in forests of other trees, in several 
parts of France ; particularly in Franche Compté, Dauphiné, Haute Provence, 
the chain of mountains stretching across Languedoc, and the Pyrenees. The 
box tree is produced abundantly in Turkey, and on the shores of the Black 
Sea; but a great proportion of the boxwood of commerce, sold in the 
European markets as Turkey box, is grown in Circassia and Georgia, whence it 
is brought to Odessa, and shipped for Europe. It is found in various parts 
of Persia, China, Cochin-China, and, according to some, in Japan. In Britain, 
the box is a disputed native. (See p. 25.) It grows plentifully upon Box Hill, 
near Dorking, in Surrey: not among deciduous trees, and shaded by them, as 
it does in its native habitats in France, and in other parts of the Continent ; 
but only mixed with a few juniper bushes, that do not rise so high as itself. 
Ray mentions three other habitats; viz. Boxwell, in Gloucestershire ; Boxley, 
in Kent ; and the chalk hills near Dunstable : but the box tree does not appear 
to be now found growing in uncultivated ground any whefe in Britain, but on 
Box Hill. In Baxter’s British Flowering Plants, vol. ii. p. 145., it is stated, 
on the authority of the Rev. Archdeacon Pierson, to be found in the hedges 
abcut Kilburne, near Coxwold, in Yorkshire ; which, however, is no proof of 
its being indigenous. 
History. The box tree appears to have been first mentioned by Theophrastus, 
who ranks the wood with that of ebony, on account of the closeness of its 
grain. Pliny describes it as being as hard to burn as iron, as producing no flame, 
and as being totally unfit for charcoal. He distinguishes three kinds, which 
he calls the larger, the smaller, and the Italian box; and speaks of the use 
of the tree for topiary work, and of the wood for musical instruments. Vitru- 
vius also recommends the box for topiary work ; and it appears to have been 
much employed in verdant sculpture, and close-clipped hedges, in the gardens 
of Roman villas in the Augustan age. Pliny describes his Tusculan villa as 
having a lawn adorned with figures of animals cut out in box trees, answering 
alternately to one another. This lawn was again surrounded by a walk 
enclosed with evergreen shrubs, sheared into a variety of forms. Beyond 
this was a place of exercise, of a circular form, ornamented in the middle 
with box trees, sheared, as before, into numerous different figures; and the 
whole fenced in by a sloping bank, covered with box, rising in steps to the top. 
In another part of the grounds of the same villa, the box is mentioned as 
being cut into a variety of shapes and letters; some expressing the name 
of the master, and others that of the artificer, &c. (Plin. Epist., book v. 
letter vi.) The same practice is followed in several Roman gardens at the 
present day; and, in that of the Vatican, the name of the pope, the date of his 
election, &c., may be read from the windows of the palace in letters of box. 
Virgil calls it 
“ Smooth-grain’d, and proper for the turner’s trade, 
Which curious hands may carve, and steel with ease invade.” 
Drvypven’s Virgil. 
