Trees, Shown to the Children — The Box

PLATE XXVIII

THE BOX

Many of us only know Box as the name given to the small bushy plant which is placed along the edges of our garden borders to keep the earth from falling out on the gravel path.

And we are surprised to learn that this plant is only the Dwarf Box, and that the true Box is a tree, a fair-sized tree, which may be seen any day in Oxford growing to a height of over twenty feet.

We must learn to recognise the Box tree, for in the South of England there are still many districts where it grows freely.

It has been known in this country for hundreds of years, but its fame has come down to us in a curious way.

In old books we read that the Box was chiefly prized as the tree which would stand more clipping than any other.

People in those days had a strange fancy for cutting trees and bushes into quaint shapes.

They had Box trees which looked like peacocks, and Box trees shaped like beehives.

There were arm-chairs, and tubs, and even statues made of growing Box, cut and trimmed by the gardener’s clever shears.

[Illustration: PLATE XXVIII THE BOX

1. Box Tree 2. Leaf Spray with Flowers 3. Single Flower 4. Fruit] The best gardener then was the one who clipped best, and a very difficult art it was, to clip the tree into a certain shape and yet not to kill it.

Nowadays these quaint Box tree curiosities are scarcely ever made, but a Box tree hedge is often planted, and its masses of closely-crowded evergreen leaves afford good protection to young plants in a windy garden.

The Box tree (1) has a dark grey-green bark, and the young shoots are four-sided.

It grows very slowly--only a few inches each year--and because of this the wood is very hard and fine, as fine as ebony.

The leaves (2) are placed opposite each other, and are small and egg-shaped, with smooth edges.

Above they are dark green and very glossy, but underneath the colour is paler.

They are very poisonous these Box leaves, and fowls are known to have died from eating them.

The poet Wordsworth tells us that at country funerals it was usual to have a basin filled with sprays of Box standing at the door, and every friend who came to the funeral took a spray, which he carried to the churchyard and laid on the new grave.

Rosemary or Yew sprays were often used in the same way.

The flowers are very tiny; you will scarcely be able to see how they are shaped without a magnifying-glass.

They grow in crowded yellow clusters at the foot of the leaves, where they join the stem.

In each cluster there is usually one seed flower (3) with a tiny green pea in the centre, from which rise three curved horns.

All the other flowers will be stamen flowers, which shed plenty of pollen dust over this single green pea.

The fruit (4) is a green berry, enclosing a tiny black seed, which you cannot see.

Box-wood is very valuable and is scarce in this country.

Most of what we use comes from other lands.

In France there is a large Box-wood forest near the village of St. Claude, and all the people in that village spend their days making the Box-wood into small articles, such as forks and spoons, and rosaries and snuff-boxes, for which they get a good deal of money.

The wood is pale yellow, and may be cut into the finest pattern without breaking.

For many years Box-wood has been used by engravers for making the blocks from which pictures and patterns are printed; the wood is so hard that these blocks can be used many, many times without the edges becoming worn.

Near London there grew a famous wood called Boxhill, and when the trees in that wood were cut down they were sold for ten thousand pounds.

PLATE XXIX