CLASS XXI. ORDER IV. | BUXUS. 1191 
often hairy footstalk. Injlorescence globose axillary clusters. Flowers 
crowded, pale yellow. Petals variable in number. Styles three, 
short, thick, spreading, persistent. Stigmas flat, obtuse. Capsules 
globular, three celled, three valved, and the persistent spreading styles 
form three horns. Seeds two in each cell, erect, oblong, compressed. 
Habitat.—Dry chalky hills, principally in the South of England. 
Perennial ; flowering in April. 
The Box is a native of most parts of Europe ; in England it has 
become rather uncommon, from the land being cleared for cultiva- 
tion ; but in many parts of France, Switzerland, and the mountainous 
districts of Italy, it is very abundant: it is a native also of Asia, 
Persia, China, and America. The Box is a slow growing tree, and is 
very valuable as an ornamental evergreen, from the circumstance of 
its flourishing well nnder the drip of trees. The wood is hard, com- 
pact, smooth, and dense, and is extensively used for the purposes of 
the turner, mathematical instrument makers, thermometer scales, &c., 
and is now in very great demand for engraving upon. The art of 
engraving upon wood has so greatly improved within the last few 
years, that it seems almost to have created a new era in the illustra- 
tions of works, and extended the knowledge of objects of natural 
history especially, to the attainment of almost every one, so that works 
which formerly, from the expense of their illustrations, were confined 
to a limited circulation, are now capable of being published at about 
one-tenth their original price. The blocks engraved are now much 
more durable, from the design being cut on the end of the grain, and 
not parallel with it, as formerly: they are not only more durable, 
but give better and finer impressions. 
Box trees were almost as much esteemed by the Romans for 
clipping into the various forms of men and animals, &c., as the Yew ; 
but since that style of ornamenting pleasure grounds is now almost 
abandoned, it is confined to hedges and shrubberies, and a dwarf 
variety is much used for border edgings, &e. 
The branches are used to deck houses and churches at Christmas ; 
and in Italy it isone of the plants most frequently used to strew the 
churches, and street leading to the church, on days of festivals, or on 
the anniversary of the patron saint, &e. 
As a medicine the leaves have been used in the form of decoction, 
in the cure of intermittent fevers, cholic, mania, &c., but it is now 
“quite out of use. The leaves do not appear to be eaten by any 
animals, and Gmelin says that they are fatal to the camels that eat 
them. The property of these leaves seems to reside in an alkaline 
principle, obtained by Fauré, by digesting the bark of the tree in 
alcohol, which is evaporated, and the residue dissolved in water and 
boiled with a solution of ammonia. The precipitate thus obtained is 
digested in alcohol and evaporated, and the Buwina is left in a dark 
brown translucent mass. 
