13.31- ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART Ml. 



a French writer, " has the advantage of taking any form that may be wished, 

 under the hands of the gardener. Here it displays a niche cut in an ap- 

 parently solid green bank ; there, an arbour impenetrable to the rays of the 

 sun. On one side it covers a wall with a tapestry of continual verdure, and 

 on the other it clothes a palisade : now it divides the walks of a garden, 

 and now it marks out the figure of a parterre. In all cases, it presents a most 

 agreeable verdure to the eyes, and preserves the idea of cheerfulness even in 

 winter, when almost every other^tree appears mourning for the absence of the 

 sun." (Nouv. Cotirs. d'Agri., torn. iii. p. 276.) It grows slowly, rarely making 

 shoots of more than 6 in. or 8 in. annually. But the tree is of great longevity ; 

 and so extremely hardy, that it is the only evergreen that will stand in the 

 open air, without protection, in the gardens of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. 



Geography. The box is found wild throughout Europe and Asia, between 

 37 and 52 of N. lat., on mountains, and spreading as undergrowth among other 

 trees, but never forming forests entirely by itself. The largest collections of 

 wild box trees in Europe are in the Forest of Ligny in France, and in that of St. 

 Claude on Mount Jura ; but in both cases the box trees are mixed with trees 

 of other species. Box trees are also found in forests of other trees, in several 

 parts of France ; particularly in Franche Compte, Dauphine, Haute Provence, 

 the chain of mountains stretching across Languedoc, and the Pyrenees. The 

 box tree is produced abundantly in Turkey, and on the shores of the Black 

 Sea; but a great proportion of the boxwood of commerce, sold in the 

 European markets as Turkey box, is grown in Circassia and Georgia, whence it 

 is brought to Odessa, and shipped for Europe. It is found in various parts 

 of Persia, China, Cochin-China, and, according to some, in Japan. In Britain, 

 the box is a disputed native. (See p. 25.) It grows plentifully upon Box Hill, 

 near Dorking, in Surrey : not among deciduous trees, and shaded by them, as 

 it does in its native habitats in France, and in other parts of the Continent ; 

 but only mixed with a few juniper bushes, that do not rise so high as itself. 

 Ray mentions three other habitats ; viz. Boxwell, in Gloucestershire; Boxley, 

 in Kent ; and the chalk hills near Dunstable : but the box tree does not appear 

 to be now found growing in uncultivated ground any where in Britain, but on 

 Box Hill. In Baxter's British Flowering Plants, vol. ii. p. 145., it is stated, 

 on the authority of the Rev. Archdeacon Pierson, to be found in the hedges 

 about Kilburne, near Coxwold, in Yorkshire ; which, however, is no proof of 

 its being indigenous. 



History. The box tree appears to have been first mentioned by Theophrastus, 

 who ranks the wood with that of ebony, on account of the closeness of its 

 grain. Pliny describes it as being as hard to burn as iron, as producing no flame, 

 and as being totally unfit for charcoal. He distinguishes three kinds, which 

 he calls the larger, the smaller, and the Italian box ; and speaks of the use 

 of the tree for topiary work, and of the wood for musical instruments. Vitru- 

 vius also recommends the box for topiary work ; and it appears to have been 

 much employed in verdant sculpture, and close-clipped hedges, in the gardens 

 of Roman villas in the Augustan age. Pliny describes his Tusculan villa as 

 having a lawn adorned with figures of animals cut out in box trees, answering 

 alternately to one another. This lawn was again surrounded by a walk 

 enclosed with evergreen shrubs, sheared into a variety of forms. Beyond 

 this was a place of exercise, of a circular form, ornamented in the middle 

 with box trees, sheared, as before, into numerous different figures ; and the 

 whole fenced in by a sloping bank, covered with box, rising in steps to the top. 

 In another part of the grounds of the same villa, the box is mentioned as 

 being cut into a variety of shapes and letters ; some expressing the name 

 of the master, and others that of the artificer, &c. (Plin. Epist., book v. 

 letter vi.) The same practice is followed in several Roman gardens at the 

 present day; and, in that of the Vatican, the name of the pope, the date of his 

 election, &c., may be read from the windows of the palace in letters of box. 

 Virgil calls it 



" Smooth-grain'd, and proper for the turner's trade, 

 "Which curious hands may carve, and steel with ease invade." 



DRVDF.N'S J'irgfl. 



