436 BUXUS SEIMPERVIRENS. 
grave. The common box is the badge of the Highland clan M'Intosh ; and the 
variegated kind, of the clan M'Pherson. 
Propagation and Culture. The box may be propagated from seeds, by cut- 
tings, and layers. When allowed to grow freely, this tree produces an abun- 
dance of seeds ; but where it is closely clipped in, they seldom arrive at maturity. 
They should be gathered as soon as the capsules appear ready to open, and 
should be sown immediately in light, rich earth, consisting chiefly of vegetable 
mould, which is well drained. Autumn is the proper time for planting cuttings, 
which may be from four to six inches in length. They should be set in a sandy 
soil, and a shaded situation, and in a year after they will be fit to transplant into 
nursery lines. Layers may be made either in the spring or autumn, both of the 
young and the old wood. The dwarf box used for edgings is best propagated in 
the spring, by being taken up, divided, and replanted. They may be clipped at 
almost any season except in mid- winter; but June is considered as the most 
appropriate time for this operation, as well as that of hedges or other ornaments, 
when the plants have nearly completed their year's growth; because they will 
afterwards make shoots of half of an inch to an inch in length, or, at all events, 
put forth a [e\v leaves, and thus, in a few weeks, will conceal all appearance of 
the use of the shears. When this practice is followed, it is necessary to go over 
the edgings or hedges in July, in order to cut neatly off, with the knife, any shoots 
that may have been protruded too far, taking care not to cut the leaves. Box 
edgings, when kept low, if they are wanted to endure many years, require occa- 
sionally to be cut in, almost to the ground ; and this operation should only be 
performed on one side of the edging in one year, and not on the other side till two 
years after. When treated in this way, both edgings and hedges will, on good, 
loamy soil, endure for a long time ; whereas, if they be continually clipped on the 
surface only, a network of shoots is formed there, which, by excluding the air 
from the stem within, occasions decay, and the edging or hedge becomes unsightly 
and naked below. The form of the cross section of a box edging or hedge, should 
always be that of a truncated triangle, with the broadest end next to the ground. 
In the case of edgings to walks, or to flower-beds, their breadth at the ground 
may be three inches, their height four inches, and their width at the top two 
inches ; or one half of these dimensions may be adopted. In every case, both of 
edgings and hedges, the base ought always to be broader than the summit, in 
order that the rain may fall on the sides, and the light of the sun strike on them 
with more force. In clipping the box into artificial forms, it is usual to enclose 
the tree in a slight frame of wirework of the intended form ; and, for the sake of 
durability, the wire should be of copper, and painted green, which would also 
render it less conspicuous. 
Properties and Uses. The wood of the box is remarkably heavy, weighing, 
when newly cut, nearly eighty pounds and a half to a cubic foot, and when per- 
fectly dry, sixty-eight and three-fourths pounds ; being the only European wood 
that will sink, in that state, in water. It is of a yellowish colour, of a very hard, 
compact grain, and is susceptible of a fine polish; and, when well seasoned, it 
expands and contracts, by heat and cold, moisture and dryness, less than any 
other kind of wood. Hence, it was formerly much used in England, in cabinet- 
making and inlaying, as it still is in France; and also, in most countries in 
Europe and America, for musical and mathematical instruments, combs, and 
various articles of turnery. But one of the principal uses to which this wood is 
applied, is, for wood-engraving : and for this purpose, it forms an important arti- 
cle of commerce. 
In France, the box-wood used by cabinet-makers and turners, is chiefly that 
of the root. The town of St. Claude, near which there is one of the largest box- 
groves in Europe, is almost entirely inhabited by turners, who make snuff-boxes 
