CHAP. XCIX.

evvylokbia'ceae. bu'xus.

1339

appears to have been equally the case in Europe in modern times ; gardeners,even so late as the time of the Commonwealth , being called by Commeniuspleachers (See Janua Trilinguis, Oxford edit.) About the middle of theseventeenth century, the taste for verdant sculpture was at its height inEngland; and, about the beginning of the eighteenth, it afforded a subject ofraillery for the wits of the day, soon afterwards beginning to decline. Thereare some humorous papers on the subject in the Guardian , and other contem-porary works. The following lines will give a good idea of a topiary garden :—

“ There likewise mote be seen on every sideThe shapely box, of all its branching prideUngently shorne, and, with preposterous skill,

To various beasts, and birds of sundry quill,

Transform’d, and human shapes of monstrous size.

Also other wonders of the sportive shears,

Fair Nature mis-adorning, there were found :

Globes, spiral columns, pyramids, and piersWith spouting urns and budding statues crown’d;

And horizontal dials on the ground,

In living box, by cunning artists traced ;

And galleys trim, on no long voyage bound,

But by their roots there ever anchor’d fast.”

G. West.

In modern Gardening, the tree box forms one of our most valuable evergreenshrubs or low trees. It is more particularly eligible as an undergrowth inornamental plantations; where, partially shaded by other trees, its leavestake a deeper green, and shine more conspicuously. Next to the holly, ithas the most beautiful appearance in winter; more especially when theground is covered with snow. The variegated sorts are admissible as objectsof curiosity; but, as they are apt to lose their variegation when planted in theshade, and as, in the full light, their green is frequently of a sickly yellowishhue, we do not think that they can be recommended as ornamental. Themyrtle-leaved forms a very handsome small bush on a lawn. The use of thedwarf box for edgings is familiar to every one.

The other Uses of the box, in former times, were various; but most of themare now almost forgotten. The bark and leaves are bitter, and have a dis-agreeable smell; and a decoction of them, when taken in a large dose, is saidto be purgative; and, in a small dose, sudorific. An empyreumatic oil isextracted from them, which is said to cure the toothach and some other dis-orders. A tincture was made from them, which was once a celebrated specificin Germany for intermittent fevers ; but, the secret having been purchased andmade public by Joseph I., the medicine fell into disuse. Olivier de Serres ( Theat. d’Agri.') recommends the branches and leaves of the box, as by far thebest manure for the grape; not only because it is very common in the southof France , but because there is no plant that by its decomposition affords agreater quantity of vegetable mould. The box is said to enter into the com-position of various medicated oils for strengthening and increasing the.growthof the hair; and Parkinson says that “ the leaves and sawdust, boiled in lie,will change the hair to an auburn colour.” Box is sometimes substitutedfor holly in the churches at Christmas ; and, in a note to Wordsworth ’s poems,we are informed that, “in several parts of the north of England, when afuneral takes place, a basinful of sprigs of box is placed at the door of thehouse from which the coffin is taken up; and each person who attends thefuneral takes one of these sprigs, and throws it into the grave of the deceased.”{Words. Poems, vol.i. p. 163.) The box is the badge of the Highland clanMTntosh; and the variegated kind, of the clan M'Pherson. ( Baxt. Brit. FI. PL,n. t. 142.) Pliny affirms that no animal will eat the seed of the box; and it issaid that its leaves are particularly poisonous to camels. It is also asserted bymany authors that box trees are never cropped by cattle; and that the Corsicanhoney is rendered poisonous from the bees feeding on the flowers of the box.

Propagation and Culture. The box is propagated by seeds, cuttings, andlayers. It seeds freely where it is allowed to grow freely; but, where it is