CATALOGUE OF THE TIMBERS OF THE WORLD 35 



Boxwood. Sources various. 



Ordinary genuine boxwood is derived from the evergreen shrub or 

 tree Buxus sempervirens, Linn., which is familiar as a shrub in EngUsh 

 gardens, but also occurs in sunny places in this country as a wild plant. 

 Extending over a large part of Europe from Norway to the Mediterranean, 

 thence across Asia as far as Japan and the Himalayas in India, it is mainly 

 a shrub in the northern situations, but attains a tree form in countries 

 bordering the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, the Himalayas and, 

 remarkable to mention, in England at Box Hill in Surrey and other places. 

 While the commercial wood is of all the following kinds, British, Mediter- 

 ranean, Turkish, Abasian, Persian, and Himalayan, yet the main suppUes 

 come from the countries bordering on the Black Sea. All these woods 

 will be described under the general heading of European and Asiatic 

 boxwood. How considerable has been the trade in Caucasian and Persian 

 boxwood is seen from the quantities exported to England, France, and 

 Turkey, which are reported in Trees of Great Britain and Ireland (Elwes 

 and Henry). From the Caucasus between 1883 and 1887 there was a 

 yearly average of 2340 tons, and from Persia in 1906, 1560 tons. Since 

 iSgo the Caucasian trade has diminished, and in 1895 the total export 

 had fallen to 1200 tons. 



In addition to these European and Asiatic varieties genuine boxwood 

 of another kijid, the product of Buxus Macowani, comes from south-west 

 Africa and is known as African or East London boxwood. This name 

 is also given to the dangerously poisonous wood of another South African 

 tree, Gonioma Kamassi, E. Mey, also known as Knysna boxwood and 

 Kamassi wood. These will be described under the heading of African 

 boxwood, which also includes a third kind. Other so-called boxwoods, 

 which are not products of Buxus and lack some of, the qualities of true 

 boxwood, are the West African, West Indian, Ceylon, and Australian box- 

 woods. Of these the West Indian is the only variety which has yet 

 occupied any important place in commercial usage. 



The wood is Ught yeUow, very hard and heavy, of dense, most 

 uniform texture and very fine grain. This unique homogeneous wood has, 

 when fully seasoned, the further valuable property of resisting spUtting, 

 and of yielding a fine surface when turned or planed. It has, therefore, 

 special uses in the manufacture of wood-engraving blocks, rulers, mathe- 

 matical instruments, handles of tools, planes, shuttles, wood wind instru- 

 ments, combs, and inlay work. During the European war, although many 

 other descriptions of wood were tried, boxwood alone was found capable of 

 resisting the great strain of hammering the load into shells, and was so 

 used in the form of what are termed " punners " or " stemming rods." 

 These are circular rods i J inches in diameter, and varying in length from 

 14 inches to about 3 feet. The rod is struck by hand with a mallet with 



