304 GENERAL REVIEW. 



and in the gardens at Shrubland there is a distinct variety with 

 drooping branches, " as pendulous as those of a weeping Ash." 

 Another very ornate decorative form is the Hardwicke Box, a 

 very fine evergreen shrub, much like the Handsworth Box in 

 general character. Mr Fish says that the original plant is at 

 Hardwicke,- and looks to be about twenty or more years old. 

 " Lady Cullum," he writes, " tells me that it came up amongst 

 others, and Sir Thomas Cullum, who was a great admirer of 

 Box, thought, I believe, that it was a cross between the 

 Minorca and the Common Box. There seems no doubt it 

 originated here, and all our stock is the produce of one plant. 

 It is most distinct and beautiful. All the other kinds of Box 

 seed very freely here, but I have never seen the Hardwicke 

 variety either flower or seed, which is somewhat singular. We 

 have thousands come up in the shubberies every year, but I 

 have not seen one at all like the Hardwicke." 



The dwarf Box used for edgings to walks and flower-beds is 

 B. sempervirens suffruticosa. In the north of Europe B. sem- 

 pervirens attains a height of 20 to 30 feet, and the wood, 

 which is annually becoming more expensive, is imported 

 largely for the manufacture of blocks for engraving purposes, 

 and also for mathematical instruments, more especially for 

 folding carpenters' rules. All the finer kinds of wood-engrav- 

 ing are executed on blocks of this wood cut into squares ex- 

 actly one inch in thickness. The engravings in this work are 

 all cut on this wood, which is sold at prices varying from one 

 halfpenny to sixpence per square inch, according to quality 

 and size. B. balearica or Minorca Box has larger leaves than 

 the common species, and is not so hardy. All the kinds may 

 be propagated from seeds sown as soon as ripe, or from cut- 

 tings five or six inches in length taken from the current year's 

 growth about August, and inserted in rows like Laurel cuttings 

 along a sheltered border having a northern aspect. B. anstralis, 

 a New Holland species, and B. chinensis (Chinese), require a 

 greenhouse temperature in winter. B. Fortunii (China) and 

 B. longifolia (Nepal) are distinct (see 'Revue Horticole,' 1871, 

 p. 519, 520). 



Dalechampia. A small genus of Asiatic or Indian plants, 

 D. Rozleana rosea being sometimes met with in gardens. 

 It has glossy drooping or lanceolate-serrate leaves, and yellow 

 flowers, protected by large heart-shaped pink bracts ; easily pro- 

 pagated by cuttings of the young growth. One or twp elegant 

 .scandent Indian species are yet unintroduced. 



Codiaeum (Crotons). A well-known genus of ornamental- 

 foliaged stove shrubs, natives of the Moluccas and the South 



