BOW-WOOD— BOX 147 



S.G. 983. W 57 — 61. Drab to dark red, sometimes prettily- 

 grained, very hard, close-grained, fairly easy to work, and said to be 

 very durable underground. 



Bow-wood. See Osage-Orange. 



Box {Buxus sempervirens L. : Order Eupkorbidcece). French 

 " Bois commun," " Bois beni," Germ, " Buchsbaum." Kortbern 

 and Western Asia, North Africa, and Central and Southern Europe. 

 Height 8—30 ft.; diam. small. S.G. 950—980. W 80-5—53. 

 Light yellow, very homogeneous, almost horn-like, neither rings, 

 pith-rays, nor vessels being distinct, hard, heavy, &m, free from 

 heart-shake, difficult to split, but works up smoothly, with a slight 

 silky lustre, and is durable, when thoroughly seasoned. " Box- 

 wood is very apt to spHt in drying ; and to prevent this, the French 

 turners put the wood designed for their finest work into a dark 

 cellar as soon as it is cut, where they keep it from three to five years. 

 . . . They strike off the sapwood with a hatchet, and place the 

 hardwood again in the cellar till it is wanted for the lathe. For the 

 most dehcate articles, the wood is soaked for twenty-four hours in 

 fresh very clear water, and then boiled for some time. When taken 

 out of the boiling water, it is wiped perfectly dry and buried, till 

 wanted for use, in sand or bran." Compared for closeness of grain 

 to Ebony by Theoplirastus : used by the Romans for veneers and 

 flutes : Virgil mentions the Box as used by the turner : 



" Smootli-grained and proper for the turner s trade. 

 ■Which, curious hands may carve, and steel with ease invade." 



(Dryden's translation.) 



Invaluable for mathematical instruments, the chief use of Box 

 since the fifteenth century has been for wood-engraving, for which 

 purpose it is chiefly imported from Abasia in Circassia, Persia, and 

 Odessa in billets 3 — 8 ft. long and 3 — 12 in. across, fetching as much 

 as £60 a ton for large sizes. In spite of the advance of other 

 methods of engraving, Box is so xmequalled for this purpose that 

 careful search is being made for any wood likely to approach it in 

 suitability. (See p. 88 supra.) The largest number of box-trees 

 in Europe are in the mixed forests of Ligny and of St. Claude on 

 the Jura. At the latter place the wood, which is not of large 

 dimensions, is turned into small boxes, beads, spoons, forks, etc. 

 The Teasshur or wv^os of Ezekiel xxvii. 6, which was inlaid with 

 ivory, was probably Buxus longifolia of Lebanon. 



In Australia the name Box is appHed to a great number of 

 Eucalypti, such as E, hemipMoia [See Canary Wood], E. largiflorens 

 [See Gum, Slaty], E. leucoxylon [See Ironbark], E. odordfa [See 

 Peppermint], E. stelluldta, E, Stuartidna, and E. vimindlis [See Gum, 

 Manna]. In America the name is applied to Cornus florida L. [See 

 Dogwood] ; in the Bahamas to Yitex umhrosa Sw. 



10—2 



