BOX-TREE. 
North America, Peru, Barbary, Siberia, and the 
south of Kurope; and about ten other species are 
known to botanists. One of the introduced spe- 
cies, the African, is a small deciduous tree ; three, 
the rigid, the fleshy, and the small-leaved, are 
deciduous shrubs; six, the slender, the tetran- 
drous, the ashy, the horrid, the Carolina, and the 
Boerhaavia-leaved, are evergreen shrubs; one, 
Shaw’s, is an evergreen climber; and the others 
are deciduous climbers. The evergreen climber 
and three of the evergreen shrubs are half-ten- 
der; and all the rest are quite hardy. We shall 
particularly notice only two as specimens of the 
whole. 
The Barbary box-thorn, Zycium Barbarum, is 
a native of various countries of Africa, Asia, and 
Hurope, and was introduced to Great Britain 
from Barbary in 1696. It isa deciduous climber, 
and usually attains a height of about 12 or 16 
feet ; but it has such rambling habits that, if let 
alone for a few years, it will overspread every- 
thing in its vicinity. Its branches are very nu- 
merous, exceedingly spreading, so rapid in growth 
as to shoot 12 or 16 feet in a single season, and 
so stoloniferous that, if allowed to trail upon the 
ground, they will strike root and send up a whole 
crop of young shoots. The branches are covered 
with a grey or whitish bark ; the leaves have a 
thick consistence, and a light whitish green 
colour,— grow by threes on all sides of the 
branches,— and are oval spear-shaped, very 
smooth, a little glossy, and often do not fall till 
the middle of winter; large spines, of a foot or 
more in length, and garnished with single, alter- 
nate leaves, cover the stem and the older branches, 
and many short, sharp, whitish spines stand near 
the ends of the shoots ; and the flowers are small, 
have a purplish or violet colour, grow singly on 
short footstalks at the joints, and appear from 
May till August, or even bloom in a succession 
till the commencement of severe frost. 
Shaw’s box-thorn, Lyctwm Shawii, was intro- 
duced from the Cape of Good Hope in 1700. It 
is a half-tender climbing evergreen, and usually 
attains a height of about 8 or 9 feet. It has a 
low shrubby appearance; its branches rise up- 
ward from the ground, and are covered with a 
dark green bark, and armed with strong, short, 
binate thorns; its leaves are heart-shaped, not 
much larger than those of the box-tree, of the 
same consistence and colour, terminating in acute 
points, and standing on short footstalks, in oppo- 
site pairs; and its flowers are small, white, and 
odoriferous, stand in groups of five or six on 
short slender footstalks, and appear in July and 
August. This plant is preserved through the 
winter under a common frame; and is propagated 
from cuttings. 
BOX-TREE,—botanically Buaus. A genus of 
hardy evergreen shrubs, of the spurge tribe. The 
common box, Buaus sempervirens, is at once ex- 
ceedingly well-known, eminently beautiful, and 
very variously useful. It grows wild on some of 
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the chalk hills of England, and in most parts of 
Kurope, but attains its greatest size near the 
shores of the Mediterranean. Extensive planta- 
tions of it were made, by the Earl of Arundel, at 
Boxhill in Surrey; and the clearings of these 
plantations in the year 1815 produced upwards 
of £10,000. Woods and groves of it appear to 
have formerly existed in several districts of Eng- 
land; and had they not been swept away by un- 
calculating operations in georgy, they would pro- 
bably have, at this day, been more profitable than 
any other possible produce of the soil. The box- 
tree flourishes on very poor soils and in bleak 
situations, and is there far more worthy of the 
planter’s notice than any known ligneous plant 
cultivated in Great Britain; and even on the 
best soils and in the choicest situations, it would 
probably make as remunerating a return as any 
other tree except the oak, the ash, the elm, and 
the beech. The plantations of it at Boxhill were 
long ago as remarkable for their thriving condi- 
tion as for their extent; yet the soil is a poor, 
thin-skinned, chalky loam, and the situation is 
high, unsheltered, and singularly churlish. The 
box-tree thrives alike in poor soil and in rich, in 
an open district and amidst choking shelter ; and 
so remarkably patient is it of the shade and drip 
of other trees, that it may occasionally be seen as 
healthful and luxuriant in a neglected grove or 
under a perfect canopy of foliage as on the breezy 
summit of an unsheltered hillock. It might be 
most advantageously raised as underwood to the 
oak, and form an admirable cover to game. It 
has long and most deservedly held a prominent 
place among the ornaments of the shrubbery; 
and while one of the most common, is not the 
least handsome, of our dendritic evergreens. Its 
deep and glossy verdure, its small, neat, profuse 
foliage, the swelling softness of its outline, and 
the richness and delicacy of its general appear- 
ance, render it both grateful and attractive during 
the leafless period of deciduous trees. 
The timber of the box-tree is yellowish, close 
grained, very heavy, and very hard, cuts much 
better than other wood, takes a very fine polish, 
is exceedingly durable, and sells in the market 
for a very high price. It is the timber used in 
wood-engraving ; it is used much in turnery, and 
very extensively in the manufacture of musical 
and mathematical instruments ; it is employed 
in France for making combs, knife-handles, and 
other small articles ; and it has of late years come 
into such increased demand in England as to be 
a considerable article of exportation from the 
Mediterranean. The value of English boxwood 
in 1785 was 16s. per cwt.; and that of Turkey 
boxwood, during the last few years, has been 
from £7 to £14 per ton Boxwood, according to 
a statement made by M. Du Petit Thouars to the 
Philomathic Society of Paris, is more extensively 
used than hops by the Parisian brewers; and it 
probably owes its successful substitution of hops 
to its containing a powerful chemical principle, 
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