CHAP. XCIX. 



EUFHORBIJCE^. i?u'xUS. 



1337 



to an adequate pressure." (Ibid.) Formerly, a great deal of care was required, 

 in printing woodcuts, in " the adjustment of a number of small pieces of paper 

 between the stretched parchment and blanket that covered the block, during 

 the impression from the common hand-press, in order to give a greater force 

 to the bearing upon shadows, while the lights were, of course, equally relieved 

 from the presure;" but a mode is now discovered of lowering the lights bv 

 the wootl-engraver ; and the blocks are now introduced with the type, and 

 printed from with the same facility, by the revolving cylinder of a printing- 

 machine. 



In t/ie geometrical mid architectural Style of Gardening, the box was extensively 

 employed, both as a tree and as a shrub, throughout Europe, from the earliest 

 times. As a tree, it formed, when clipped into shape, hedges, arcades, arbours, 

 and, above all, figures of men and animals. As a shrub, it was used to border 

 beds and walks, and to execute numerous curious devices ; such as letters, coats 

 of arms, &c., on the ground ; but of all the uses of the dwai'f box, the most im- 

 portant, in the ancient style of gardening, was that of forming parterres of em- 

 broidery ; it being the only evergreen shrub susceptible of forming the delicate 

 lines which that style of parterre required, and of being kept within the narrow 

 limits of these lines for a number of years. In those days, when the flowers used 

 in ornamenting gardens were few, the great art of the gardener was to distin- 

 guish his parterres by beautiful and curious artificial forms of evergreen 

 plants. These forms may be described generally as belonging to that style 

 of ornament known as the taste of Louis Quatorze. Fig. 1216. is a small 



portion of the ground plan of a parterre laid out in this manner ; all the 

 lines and dark parts of the figure being formed of box, in no part allowed 

 to grow higher than 3 in. from the ground, and the finer lines being about 2 in. 

 wide. The space between the lines, in the more common designs, was co- 

 hered with sand all of one colour ; but in the more choice parterres, different 

 coloured sands, earths, shells, powdered glass or potsherds, and otiier articles, 

 were used, so as to produce red, white, and black grounds, on which the green 

 of the box appeared to advantage at all seasons. This variety of colours gave 

 occasion to Lord Bacon's remark : " As for the making of knots and figures 

 with divers coloured earths, they be but toys : you may see as good sights 

 many times in tarts." The beauty of these parterres was most conspicuous, 

 when they were seen as a whole from the windows of the house, or from 

 a surrounding terrace-walk. Sometimes, however, they were placed on a 

 sloping bank, to be seen from below ; an instance of which may be found in 

 the view of the Palazzo del N. H. Venier, on the Brcnta, as given in Volka- 

 mer's Continuation der K'urembergischen Hesperidum, published in 1714-, a 

 portion of which is represented in perspective in Jig. 1217. In a view of 



