1726 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Provence/ and Pyrenees,' and occurs in a few scattered spots in the north of the 

 departments of Meuse and Meurthe-et-Moselle, extending across the frontier into 

 Belgium. It is recorded for Germany from one locality in Baden. Farther south 

 it is common in the southern Tyrol, Istria, Dalmatia, the Balkan States, and Greece. 

 It is also met with in Italy, Spain, and Portugal ; and is a rare plant in the 

 cedar forests of Algeria. In Europe, it is usually a gregarious shrub, often growing 

 on arid hills or mountains on limestone ' soil in the Mediterranean region. It is 

 cultivated in Norway as far as lat. 67° 56' on the coast, and in Sweden up to lat. 



59° 7'. 



The box attains its largest size in the Caucasus,* where it is very common in 



the coast region along the Black Sea from Sotschi to Batoum, at elevations between 



sea-level and 4000 ft. It also grows wild in Talysch, but in other parts of the 



Caucasus is a doubtful native, though it is often planted, being considered a holy 



tree by the natives. The finest trees grow inland from the Black Sea, at about 



2500 ft. altitude, where they are commonly 30 to 40 ft. in height, with stems 8 to 12 



inches in diameter. Formerly still larger trees were known, Koppen * mentioning 



50 ft. in height and 2 ft. in diameter as the maximum size. Many large trees are of 



enormous age, 500 to 600 annual rings having been counted by Medwejew ; but 



nearly all these are rotten at the heart. The box grows usually in the Caucasus in 



narrow bands along rivers and streams as undergrowth in the great forests of oak, 



ash, and beech ; and is rarely found mixed with conifers. It thrives best in moist, 



rainy, sheltered, and shaded spots. The woods of box tree in Georgia are mentioned ^ 



by Marco Polo. Until about 1890 the export of boxwood from the Black Sea 



to England, France, and Turkey, was enormous, averaging 2340 tons annually 



for the years 1883-1887. 



Consul Stevens, in his Trade Report'^ for Batoum for 1895, states : " Although 

 all the private forests of boxwood have been exhausted, the Government up to the 

 present still refuse to sell or allow boxwood to be cut in their extensive forests 

 throughout Abkhasia ; consequently the total exports from the Caucasus have not 

 exceeded 1200 tons." 



The box appears to be very common in the Elburz mountains in northern 

 Persia, especially in the forests of Mazanderan, whence the export of boxwood in 

 1906 amounted to 125,864 pieces, weighing about 1560 tons.'^ 



Whether the box is a native of England or not is doubtful ; but it is certainly 



1 Tansley in Gard. Chron. lii. 113, fig. 51 (1912) describes the peculiar shrubby vegetation, which grows on the 

 southern slopes of the hilly regions of Provence, at about 4500 ft. elevation. This consists of isolated bushes, with bare rock 

 between them, of box, lavender, and Genista cinerea. The north slopes are covered with beech woods, in which there are 

 holly and box, the latter being very abundant inland. 



2 On the south side of the Pyrenees, above Venasque at 5000 ft. altitude, I saw, in 19 12, much box, forming dense scrub 

 on sunny slopes ; and it is the prevailing undergrowth in many of the valleys of the western Pyrenees on the French side. In 

 the forest near Esterencuby, south of St. Jean-Pied-de-Port, box attained 30 ft. high on limestone, and was being felled for 

 making prayer-beads. 



3 It is most commonly found on limestone; but occurs frequently on other soils, as in the cases mentioned (p. 1725, 

 note I) by Chatin ; and according to De Candolle, Gcog. Bot. Rais. i. 426 (1855), it grows on schist in the Pyrenees, 

 on granite in Brittany, and on volcanic soil in Auvergne. G^ze, in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, Iv. 464 (1908), states that at 

 Villefranche it is not calcicole. 



* Cf. Radde, Pflanzen-verb. Kaukasusldnd. 145, 182, 201 (1899), and Koppen, Hokgewachse Europ. Russlands, ii. 1-9 

 ('^^9)- 6 Yule, Marco Polo, i. 50, 54 (1871). 



" Foreisn Office Ann. Series, No. 1717, p. 27. 7 Consular Report for Resht, No. 3864, p. 25. 



