Box
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Box. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a genus of evergreen shrubs and trees belonging to the Euphorbia family Box is an alteration of the Latin name, buxus. There are about twenty species native to central Asia, eastern Asia, southern Europe, northern Africa, the West Indies , and Central America . The common box, known to botanists as buxus sempervirens, or the evergreen box, is native to a belt of territory extending from China to the western end of the Mediterranean. It grows to be a tree twenty-five feet in height, with a trunk not to exceed ten inches in diameter. The leaves are shiny and are oval in shape. They do not exceed an inch and a half in length. The flowers are inconspicuous. The fruit is a globular, three pointed capsule, splitting at maturity into three valves, each valve containing two shining black seeds. The box is of slow growth. The wood is close-grained and has a light yellow color. This species, and a larger species found in the Levant, furnish the boxwood of commerce. Boxwood is much used in the arts. It is the best wood known for the engraver and the flute maker. It is employed in the finest wood turning and carving. A genuine boxwood rule is prized by the carpenter. Box is fairly hardy. It requires well drained soil and does not disdain gravel, but it does better with some shade. Being a slow grower, it stands trimming well. It is a favorite hedge plant in the formal ornamental grounds of Europe. A dwarf variety is planted as an edging for flower beds and walks. Box is propagated usually by cuttings.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the English name of buxus, a genus of plants belonging to the order euphorbiaceæ (spurgeworts). The common boxtree is buxus sempervirens. In its wild state it is a small tree. It is found all over the world in some form of species. It is an evergreen. A dwarf variety of the box is used as an edging along walkways in gardens.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts file box under the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae; botanists now give it a family of its own, Buxaceae, in the order Buxales, and count roughly seventy or more species rather than Aiton's "about twenty" " Con Cuba alone holding dozens of endemics. The commercial claim has collapsed too: Aiton's 1910 note that boxwood is "the best wood known for the engraver" was true right up to the moment photomechanical halftone printing displaced the engraved block, and the trade in Levant boxwood dwindled with it. The garden use both entries describe " hedges, topiary and dwarf edging " is now under serious threat from box blight, a fungal disease identified in Britain in the mid-1990s, and from the box tree moth, an Asian insect found in Europe from about 2007 that has stripped hedges across the continent and reached North America.
Written for this edition, 2026.