52 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES 

 where it grows in thick and lofty masses covering a wide area. Else, 

 where it is found planted in woods and plantations, and is frequently 

 used in gardens and elsewhere as a hedgerow shrub, the practice 

 having originated with the Romans, and having been revived under 

 the auspices of Dutch gardening. 



This is an erect, arching shrub or tree, with a hard, woody main 

 stem, with soft bark, and numerous drooping branches. The leaves 



Pilot 



Box (Buxus sempervirens, L.) 



are egg-shaped-oblong, with a notch at the extremity, with the 

 margins of the leaf-stalks hairy, the leaves opposite, shining, 1 leathery, 

 evergreen. The stomata are immersed with 4 rows of palisade cells. 



The flowers are green (the plant is monoecious), in spikes in the 

 axils, with 4 bracts below; the female flowers above the male have 

 4 sepals, which are blunt. The stamens are long, the anther-stalks 

 being strong, the anthers egg-shaped, arrow-shaped. The styles are 3, 

 spreading, not falling. The capsule is egg-shaped, wrinkled, with 

 6 seeds, 2 in each cell. 



1 These may serve to throw off snow in winter in order to prevent the plants from being weighed down 

 and so cause the branches to crack. Many other evergreens, as Holly and Yew, as well as the Ivy, have 

 the same polished surface. 



