THE BOX. 81 



daily issuing from the press, the number of artists in tliis 

 line has greatly augmented, and Box-wood has proportion- 

 ately increased in price. 



In 1815, the trees which were cut down on Box-hill 

 produced upwards of £10,000. A great deal of that 

 imported from Turkey, Odessa, and other places, is inappli- 

 cable to the purposes of the wood-engraver ; nevertheless, 

 in London alone, as much is annually consumed in works 

 of art as amounts to many thousands of pounds. 



There are, besides the Tree-Box, two varieties of Dwarf- 

 Box, which were formerly much employed in forming 

 patterns in flower-gardens imitating the designs of embroi- 

 dery. This fashion is now quite gone out, having, like 

 topiary-work, given place to the much more rational taste of 

 cultivating various exotic plants ; but representations of 

 (piaintly-figured gardens may yet be .seen in old engravings. 

 Dwarf-Box is now only planted as an edging to garden-beds, 

 for which its low wiry habit well adapts it, preventing the 

 loose earth from falling into the path, without rising high 

 enough to shade the plants in its neighbourhood, or aftbrd- 

 ing a secure refuge for vermin. It may be propagated by 

 dividing the roots, or by planting cuttings in autumn. 

 The best time for clipping Box is in June, when the new 

 shoots obliterate all traces of the shears. 



The flower of the Box is inconspicuous, being of a 

 greenish yellow colour, and growing in clusters in the axils ^ 

 of the leaves ; it ripens its seed at Box-hill. Flowers have' 

 never been observed on the dwarf variety. 



1 Axil, Latiu, axilla, the arm-pit ; in botanical phraseology, " tin- 

 angle between the leaf-stalk and stem." 



e3 



