THE ROX. 493 
cy 
The seeds, which ripen in England, are green in 
colour, and are usually ripened by August. 
Its evergreen character, its thick, clustering 
foliage, and its adaptability for culture and train- 
ing into all sorts of shapes, caused Box in former 
times—both in its dwarf and in its Tree form— 
to be largely used for purposes of ornamentation— 
which meant distorting it from its natural shape. 
But the hideous art of topiary, although it has 
not ceased to be exercised, is happily in its 
decadence, and will soon, it is to be hoped, die a 
natural death. 
The Box is a slow-growing Tree, its shoots 
rarely increasing in length annually more than six 
or seven inches. It is, however, extremely hardy, 
and can easily be propagated, either by cuttings, 
by layers, or by seed, if the soil selected be rich 
and light and sandy in its nature; although, like 
most hardy plants, it will grow in almost any kind 
of soil. Like many other slow-growing Trees, 
too, it attains a great age. It possesses one 
quality, however, owned by no other of our wood- 
land Trees. Boxwood is so heavy that it will 
sink in water—one cubic foot of it weighing, when 
