70 



THE BOX. 



BuxDs Sempervirens. 



Natural Order — Euphoubiace^. 

 Class — MoNCECiA. Or^^cr— Tetrandria. 



Many of my readers, probably, are acquainted with the 



subject of the present chapter only as a neat edging for 



flower-beds, or as a shapel}'^ bush in the formal garden of 



some antiquated manor-house : yet the Box-tree has a very 



good claim to be considered a native British tree. Its 



right is certainly disputed by some of the old botanists, 



and by the more recent authors who quote their opinions : 



but inasmuch as it is in undeniable possession of at least 



one extensive district in England, and has been so long 



enough to give to that one the name of Box-hill, I think 



we are justified in advocating its claims to be considered a 



native tree. Besides this, not only did it give name to 



Boxley in Kent, and Boxwell in Gloucestershire, which 



would prove at least that it has grown at these places 



from time immemorial, but it is expressly mentioned by 



several authors as a native. Gerard, for instance, who 



wrote in Elizabeth's reign, says : " It groweth upon sundry 



waste and barren hills in Englande." Evelyn says : 



" These trees rise naturally at Boxley in Kent, and in the 



county of Surry, giving name to the chalky hilU (near the 



famous Mole or Swallow) whither the ladies and gentlemen, 



and other water-drinkers from the neighbouring Ebesham 



1 Boxhill. The Hon. Daines Barrington, iu a paper inserted in 

 the, Philosophical Traiisadions for 1769, says : "Now we happen 

 to know that this hill was so called from an Earl of Arundel's " (the 

 famous antiquary) "having introduced this tree in the reign of 

 James or Charles the First." Barrington does not state whence he 

 obtained his knowledge, nor does he account for the fact that a 

 naturalist of the preceding century found it growing on " the waste 

 and barren hills in Englande," at least forty years before James I. 

 came to the throne. 



