THE BOX 123 



position. When young they are of a bright grass- 

 green colour, to which the Box owes the epithets of 

 "greener" and "youthful," as compared to the Holly, 

 in Herrick's verses on " Ceremonies for Candlemas 

 Eve." This brightness also renders it acceptable, 

 as Herrick's rhymes tell us, for house and church 

 decorations between Candlemas and Easter. When 

 produced in the shade, however, or when grown 

 older, the leaves are of a very dark shade of green, 

 which gives groves of this tree an effect as sombre 

 as that of the Yew itself. 



The minute pale-coloured florets appear in April 

 or May, forming crowded spikelets of sessile blossoms 

 in the axils of the leaves. In each spike the lower 

 flowers are staminate, the upper ones pistillate. In 

 addition to minute bracts, each flower is surrounded 

 by a calyx, which in the staminate flowers consists 

 of two alternating pairs of sepals, and in the pistil- 

 late flowers of a larger number, commonly six, nine, 

 or twelve, in alternating whorls of three. Similarly, 

 while one kind ol flower contains two pairs of stamens 

 and a rudimentary ovary, the other kind has three 

 carpels, united below into a three- chambered ovary, 

 but with distinct spreading styles. The filaments of 

 the stamens are comparatively long, so that pollen 

 is very* probably carried from the extruded anthers 

 by the wind. The ovary ripens into a dry capsule, 

 about half an inch long, surmounted by the horn-like 

 remains of the three styles ; and, when mature, this 

 capsule splits explosively into three valves, each 

 formed of two adherent half-carpels, so that each of 

 the stylar horns splits longitudinally. There are two 



