278 A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. BUXUS. The BOX. This we begin to proscribe our gardens, (and 

 -^^Y^^ indeed bees are no friends to it,) though it should not yet be banished from 

 our care, because the excellency of the wood does commute for the dis- 

 agreeableness of its smell : Therefore let us furnish our cold and barren 

 hills and declivities with this useful shrub, I mean the taller sort ; for 

 dwarf and more tonsil in due place. It will increase abundantly of slips 

 set in March, and towards Bartholomew-tide, as also of the seeds con- 

 tained in the cells. These trees rise naturally at Boxley in Kent, and 

 in the county of Surrey, giving name to that chalky hill, (near the famous 

 Mole or Swallow,) whither the ladies, gentlemen, and other water- 

 drinkers from the neighbouring Ebesham Spaw, often resort during the 

 heat of summer, to walk, collation, and divert themselves in the 

 natural alleys and shady recesses, among the Box-trees, without taking 

 any such offence at the smell which has of late banished it from our 

 groves and gardens ; when, after all, it is infinitely to be preferred for 

 the bordering of flower-beds and flat embroideries, to any sweeter less- 



1 Of this tree there is only one species, which in the Sp. PI. stands simply with the name 

 BUXUS. There are, however, many varieties, such as, 



1 . The Broad-leaved Box. 



2. The Dwarf, commonly called the Dutch Box.' 



3. The Narrow-leaved Box, 



4. The Gold-striped Box, 



5. The Silver-striped Box. 



6. The Gold-edged Box. 



7. The Curled-leaved striped Box. 



The kind recommended for a forest-tree is the broad-leaved ; but of all the sorts, thfi 

 narrow-leaved is by far the most beautiful. The striped sorts are only the common Box 

 variegated. 



The Box is of the class and order Mmoecia Telrandria^ 



The Box-TKEE is propagated by layers planted any time between Michaelmas and 

 March ; or by cuttings put down in autumn, and kept watered till they have struck root. 

 It may also be raised from seeds sown soon after they are ripe, in a shady border, and well 

 watered in dry weather. The Dwarf Box, for edgings, is propagated by dividing the plants 

 into as many parts as are furnished with roots. 



This tree grows luxuriantly, and in great abundance, upon Box-hill, at Darking, in Surrey, 

 which place may be said to rival Virgil's Cytorus i 



Et juvat undantem buxo spectare Cytortim. georg. ii. 



