EVERGREEN BOX-TREE. ];- 
between 1430 and 1450 entitled "Biblia Pauperum," the Bible of the poor 
This work consisted of about forty pages printed from wood-cuts, illustrated bv 
texts of scripture, which is supposed to have given the first idea of printing with 
the movable types, soon after invented by Guttemburg. In 1480 Wohlgemuth 
an engraver on wood, at Nuremberg, is said to have been the first who attempted 
to introduce shade into wood-engravings. His pupil, Albert Duer carried the ;irt 
to a very high degree of perfection; and in his time, the wood-cutters fform- 
schneider.) of Germany, became so numerous, that they were incorporated into i 
body distinct from that of the letter-printers or writers (briefmaler.) Holbein 
succeeded Duer; but soon afterwards, the art of engraving on copper bavin- been 
discovered, wood-engraving was comparatively neglected, and fell into disuse till 
the time of Bewick, when a taste for the art was revived. The first engravers on 
wood, and up to the time of Bewick, or nearly so, were accustomed to have the 
trunks of the trees on which they were to engrave, sawn up into planks, and to 
cut out the figures with a knife or other tools, on the side of the grain ; but since 
his time, or before, the practice of cutting the trunk into cross sections, about an 
inch in thickness, was adopted; and the engravings were cut out on the wood across 
the grain. The advantages of this mode over the other are, that much finer lines 
can be produced, and the engraved block, from which a greater number of impres- 
sions can be taken, will be far more durable. The followers of Bewick produced 
some beautiful engravings; but from the mode of printing from them, though 
they were mixed with the type, they were almost as expensive as if they bad be n 
worked from separate plates. By the more modern practice, however, wood-cuts 
are printed from, with the same facility as from movable types ; and as specimens 
of unsurpassable beauty, extraordinary force, and delicacy of execution, tin' reader 
is referred to several illustrated works recently published in London, by Van 
Voorst, and others, among which we would particularize the " History of British 
Forest Trees," by Selby; "Sporting Scenes and Country Characters," by Mar- 
tingale ; and the late volumes of the " Penny Magazine."* 
The largest box-trees in Britain, probably, are two at Eyford House, near 
Stow, in the Wold, in Gloucestershire, both of which exceed thirty-two let in 
height, with trunks rather more than two feet in circumference, and a diamete: 
of space covered by the branches, of about twenty feet. 
The largest box hedge in England, is at Pentworth, which is fifteen feet high, 
forty yards long, twelve feet broad at the base, and is supposed to be more than 
two centuries old. 
In France, in the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, there is a box-tree, upwards of 
one hundred years planted, which has attained a height of more than thirty feet 
The introduction of this species into the North American colonies probably 
dates back to the early periods of their settlements. One of the oldest specimens 
known to exist in this country, is growing on the estate of Mr. Lemuel V> . ^ ells. 
at Yonkers, near New York, which, it is said, was planted about two bundled 
years ago, by Frederick Philipse, who formerly lived on the place of its present 
proprietor. 
In the Bartram botanic garden, at Kingsessing. near Philadelphia, there is a 
Buxus s. variegata, which has attained the height of twenty-live feet, with a 
trunk two feet and a half in circumference. 
Poetical Allusions, $-c. The box is sometimes substituted for the holly m dec- 
orating the churches at Christmas ; and in a note to Wordsworth's poems, we aw 
informed that, in several parts of the north of England, when a funeral takes 
place, a basinful of sprigs of box is placed at the door of the bouse ol the de- 
ceased, and that each attendant takes one of these sprigs, and throws it into the 
* See Loudon's Arboretum, m , pp. L335 et 13 
