124 FAMILIAR TREES 



black seeds in each chamber of the ovary, which are 

 hurled to some little distance. 



The largest numbers of wild Box trees in Europe 

 occur in France, in the Forest of Lign}^ at St. 

 Claude in the Jura, and in the Pyrenees ; but in 

 these localities it is more mixed with deciduous 

 trees than is the case where it occurs in England. 

 A large proportion of the Boxwood of commerce, 

 shipped from Odessa and Constantinople, is the 

 produce of a distinct species, B. balea'rica Willd., 

 a native of Minorca, Sardinia, Corsica, Turkey, and 

 Asia Minor, first introduced into England in 1708, 

 which grows in its native countries to a height 

 of as much as eighty feet. 



A great deal has been written as to the claim of 

 the Box to rank as an indigenous tree in England. 

 Judging from such place-names as Boxley, Boxmoor, 

 etc., it would seem to have been at one time more 

 abundant than now, and at least of very early intro- 

 duction. These names, of which the last-mentioned, 

 in Hertfordshire, may be merely a corruption of Bogs- 

 moor, all belong to places on the chalk or limestone 

 hills of southern England, and there is nothing in the 

 continental distribution of the plant altogether fatal 

 to its being native here. But, as in the case of Sir- 

 Roger de Coverley and the Saracen's Head, much 

 may be said on both sides. More than a century ago 

 the Hon. Daines Barrington laid down a threefold 

 test of the truly indigenous character of any species 

 of tree : that such trees grow in large masses, and 

 spread over a considerable breadth of surface ; that 

 such masses never end abruptly, except where there 



