1334 .

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

a French writer, “ has the advantage of taking any form that may be wished,tinder the hands of the gardener. Here it displays a niche cut in an ap-parently solid green bank ; there, an arbour impenetrable to the rays of thesun. On one side it covers a wall with a tapestry of continual verdure, andon the other it clothes a palisade: now it divides the walks of a garden,and now it marks out the figure of a parterre. In all cases, it presents a mostagreeable verdure to the eyes, and preserves the idea of cheerfulness even inwinter, when almost every other tree appears mourning for the absence of thesun.” ( Nouv. Cours. d’Agri., tom. iii. p. 276.) It grows slowly, rarely makingshoots of more than 6 in. or 8 in. annually. But the tree is of great longevity;and so extremely hardy, that it is the only evergreen that will stand in theopen air, without protection, in the gardens of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna .

Geography. The box is found wild throughout Europe and Asia , between37 ’ and 52° of N. lat., on mountains, and spreading as undergrowth among othertrees, but never forming forests entirely by itself. The largest collections ofwild box trees in Europe are in the Forest of Ligny in France, and in that of St.Claude on Mount Jura; but in both cases the box trees are mixed with treesof other species. Box trees are also found in forests of other trees, in severalparts of France ; particularly in Franche Compte, Dauphine, Haute Provence ,the chain of mountains stretching across Languedoc, and the Pyrenees . Thebox tree is produced abundantly in Turkey, and on the shores of the BlackSea ; but a great proportion of the boxwood of commerce, sold in theEuropean markets as Turkey box, is grown in Circassia and Georgia, whence itis brought to Odessa, and shipped for Europe . It is found in various partsof Persia, China, Cochin-China, and, according to some, in Japan. In Britain ,the box is a disputed native. (See p. 25.) It grows plentifully upon Box Hill,near Dorking, in Surrey : not among deciduous trees, and shaded by them, asit does in its native habitats in France , and in other parts of the Continent;but only mixed with a few juniper bushes, that do not rise so high as itself,Ray mentions three other habitats; viz. Boxwell, in Gloucestershire ; Boxley,in Kent; and the chalk hills near Dunstable : but the box tree does not appearto be now found growing in uncultivated ground any where in Britain , but onBox Hill. In Baxter’s British Flowering Plants, vol. ii. p. 145., it is stated,on the authority of the Rev. Archdeacon Pierson, to be found'in the hedgesabout. Kilburne, near Coxwold, in Yorkshire ; which, however, is no proof ofits being indigenous.

History. The box tree appears to have been first mentioned by Theophrastus ,who ranks the wood with that of ebony, on account of the closeness of itsgrain.’ Pliny describes it as being as hard to burn as iron, as producing no flame,and as being totally unfit for charcoal. He distinguishes three kinds, whidhe calls the larger, the smaller, and the Italian box; and speaks of the useof the tree for topiary work, and of the wood for musical instruments. Vitru-vius also recommends the box for topiary work ; and it appears to have beenmuch employed in verdant sculpture, and close-clipped hedges, in the gardensof Roman villas in the Augustan age. Pliny describes his Tusculan villa ashaving a lawn adorned with figures of animals cut out in box trees, answeringalternately to one another. This lawn was again surrounded by a wall-enclosed with evergreen shrubs, sheared into a variety of forms. Beyondthis was a place of exercise, of a circular form, ornamented in the middlewith box trees, sheared, as before, into numerous different figures; and thewhole fenced in by a sloping bank, covered with box, rising in steps to the top.In another part of the grounds of the same villa, the box is mentioned sbeing cut into a variety of shapes and letters; some expressing the M® eof the master, and others that of the artificer, &c. ( Plin. Epist., book*letter vi.) The same practice is followed in several Roman gardens at thepresent day; and, in that of the Vatican , the name of the pope, the date of to

election, &c., may be read from the windows of the palace in letters of bos.

Virgil calls it

Smooth-grain’d, and proper for the turner’s trade,

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

Dryden’s Virgu -