EUPHORBIACE. 95 
Flowers axillary, aggregated into fascicles, consisting of many male 
flowers and 1 female flower, or of male flowers only. 
The derivation of the name of this genus of plants is from the word ztfoc (pucos), 
from ruxéfw, to grow thick or hard, in reference possibly to the hardness or closeness 
of the wood, or the density of the foliage. The Greeks called the boxes made of this 
wood, which were highly esteemed for their durability, pyaides; and hence probably 
arose the word pyz, which is used for the chest containing the Host in the Roman 
Catholic Church. 
SPECIES I-BUXUS SEMPERVIRENS. Linn. 
Pirate MCCLILI. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. V. Tab. CLIT. Fig. 4808. 
Billot, Fl. Gall. et Germ. Exsicc. No. 639. 
Leaves coriaceous, oblong-oval, obtuse or retuse at the apex, with 
thickened margins. Flowers in fascicles in the axils of the leaves of the 
upper branches. Anthers oval-oblong, sagittate-cordate. Branches of 
the year downy. 
On dry chalky hills. Very rare, and probably not indigenous in 
most of its localities, though there appears to be some likelihood of its 
being truly native on Boxhill, Surrey. Kent, Surrey, Bucks, and 
Gloucester are the only counties of which there is any possibility of 
its being a genuine native. 
England. Shrub. Spring. 
A small much-branched tree-like shrub, in its native state 4 to 
10 feet high, with dark greenish grey striate rugose bark, the younger 
branches opposite greenish and 4-angular. Leaves opposite, evergreen, 
very shortly stalked, } to 1} inch long, crowded, subdistichous, glossy 
dark green above, paler and yellower beneath, entire on the margins. 
Flowers yellowish white, mmute. Filaments rather long; anthers 
yellow. Capsule ovoid, with 3 horns, reticulate, } inch long. Seeds 
about 1 inch long, black, shining, smooth, bluntly trigonous. 
Common Boz. 
French, Buis toujours vert. German, Immergriiner Buchsbawn. 
This hardy evergreen tree or shrub is well known in every garden and shrubbery. 
It bears clipping and cutting better than almost any other tree of its size, and is well 
adapted for hedges, or for verdant architecture and decoration. It has long been a 
favourite in gardens, and, according to 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 apparently solid green bank; there, an arbour impenetrable to the rays 
of the sun. On one side it covers a wall with tapestry of continual verdure, and on 
the other it clothes a palisade; now it divides the walks of a garden, and now it marks 
