THE BOX. 



165 



carded them all. There seems yet to remain 

 a lingering belief that a decoction of the leaves 

 strengthens the hair ; but in by-gone days its 

 efficacy was deemed greater even than that of any 

 of the modern nostrums recommended for the 

 same purpose. 



Old Gerard^ who was sufficiently credulous in 

 other and less plausible matters (for example, 

 that the Barnacle-goose owed its origin to the 

 Oak), very wisely o bserves, that the Box is more 

 fit for dagger-hafts than to make medicines." 



Box-wood contains a powerful sudorific prin- 

 ciple with a bitter taste, which has been separated 

 and named JSuximia. M. du Petit Thouars some 

 years since stated to the Philomathic Society of 

 Paris, that more Box-wood than hops entered into 

 the composition of ahnost all the beer in France. 

 Olivier de Serres recommends the branches and 

 leaves of the Box as by far the best manure for 

 the vine ; not only because it is very common in 

 the South of France, but because there is no 

 plant that by its decomposition afl'ords a greater 

 quantity of vegetable mould. Wordsworth relates 

 that in several parts of the north of England, 

 when a funeral takes place, a basinful of sprigs of 

 Box is placed at the door of the house from which 

 the coffin is taken up ; and each person who 

 attends the funeral takes one of these sprigs, 

 and throws it into the grave of the deceased."* 



* Twigs of Rosemary were formerly carried, in like manner, by 

 persons attending funerals. In many parts of the Continent the 

 custom still continues. Hogarth, in one of his pictures, represents the 

 mourners carrying small sprigs. In South AVales it is yet common 

 for those who accompany the corpse to carry sprigs of Rosemary-, or 

 Yew, which they strew on the coffin after it is lowered into the grave. 



