Bowyer, "William, F.S.A., the " last of the learn- ed English printers," was born in London 1699, and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. He en- tered into business as a printer with his father 1722, and died in 1777. Besides editing a great number of important works in classical and general literature, he published Critical Conjectures and Observations on the \i ir '/', st inni ii/, collided from various Authors (4th ed. Lond. 1812, 4to).
BOX
Box (TjS, pal/ , rendered ' a flask or bottle for holding oil and perfumery (2 Kings ix, 1) ; like the akaj^aargov, or alabaster "box" of oint- ment in Mark xiv, 3. See Alabaster; Oil; Bottle. Among the Egyptians, simi- lar small boxes, made of wood or ivory, were numerous, and, like the vases, of many forms; and some, which contained cos- metics of divers kinds, served to deck the dressing-table or a lady's boudoir. They were carved in various ways, and loaded with ornamental devi- ces in relief; sometimes rep- resenting the favorite lotus- flower, with its buds and stalks, a goose, gazelle, fox, or other animal. Many were of con- siderable length, terminating in a hollow shell, not unlike a spoon in shape and depth, covered with a lid turning on a pin ; and to this, which may properly be styled the box, the remaining part was mere- ly an accessory, intended for ornament, or serving as a han- dle (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyp- tians, abridgm. i, 158-164).
Box-tree represents, in the Auth. Vers., the Heb. ^li'XFl, teashshur', which oc- curs in three places in Scrip- ture, but great uncertainty has
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'vial" in 1 Sam. x, 1),
"rum the Berlin
true meaning (Celsius, Hiero- Museum, hot. ii, 153). The old versions
and interpreters express it variously by that of the ce- dar, poplar, and fir ; the Vulgate (so bunts in 2 [4] Esd. xiv, 24), the Chaldee paraphrase ('pS'HSttJN ; see Maimon. ad Chelim, xii, 8; Bartenora ad Negaim,, ii, 1), and several Hebrew commentators, render it by box-tree, which view our translators have adopted.
Branch of the Box-tree (Bums Sempervirens).
There is no philological proof of this conclusion, but yet there is nothing in the tree indicated unsuitable to the several contexts. Thus, with reference to the fu- ture Temple, it is said (Isa. Ix, 13), " The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine- tree, and the box (Sept. Ktdpoc) together;" and at xli, 19, "I will set in the desert the fir-tree, and the pine, and the box (Sept. confounds with several interpolated kinds) together." Further, in Ezek. xxvii, 6, in the account of the arts and commerce of Tyre, we read, ' ' Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars, and the benches of the rowers are made of ashur-icood ("TON \ ashur' ; Sept. translates unintelligibly; Engl. Vers. " Ashurites" [q. v.]), inlaid with ivory," as it is now usually interpreted. The ashur-vrood, moreover, is said to have been brought from the isles of Chittim, that is, of Greece. According to most, however, who argue from the derivation of the word (from idNI, ashar' ' , to be erect), the teashshur is a species of cedar called sherbin (so the Syriac), to be recognised by the small size of the cones and the upward tendency of the branches (see Niebuhr's Arab. p. 149). Robinson, in his latest volume of Researches in Palestine, men* tions a grove near el-Hadith which only the natives speak of as Arez (Heb. T"?X, erez, cedar), though the tree bears a general resemblance to the cedar, and is probably the sherbin (see Celsii H'terob. i, 74, 79; Frey- tag, Lex. ii, 408 ; Robinson, iii, 593). See Cedar.
The box (Buxus sempervircns) is an eversreen, which in our gardens is generally seen only as a dwarf shrub. In the East, however, its native country, it attains the size of a forest-tree, and often forms a very beautiful feature in the landscape. It is a native of most parts of Europe. It grows well in moderate climates, while that from the Levant is most valued in commerce, in consequence of being highly esteemed by wood-en- gravers. Turkey box is yielded by Buxus Balearica, a species which is found in Minorca, Sardinia, and Corsica, and also in both European and Asiatic Tur- key, and is imported from Constantinople, Smyrna, and the Black Sea. Box is also found on Mount Cau- casus, and a species extends even to the Himalaya Mountains. Hence it is well known to Asiatics, and is the shumshad of the Arabs. It is much employed in the present day by the wood-engraver, the turner, carver, mathematical instrument-maker, and the comb and flute maker. It was cultivated by the Romans, as described by Pliny (xvi, 33). Virgil {.En., x, 135) alludes to the practice of its being inlaid with ivory (comp. Theocrit. xxiv, 108 ; Athen. v, 207 ; Pliny, xvi, 66; Virg. Georg. ii, 449; Juv. xiv, 194). The box-tree, being a native of mountainous regions, was peculiarly adapted to the calcareous formations of Mount Lebanon, and therefore likely to be- brought from thence with the coniferous woods for the build- ing of the Temple, and was as well suited as the fir and the pine trees for changing the face of the desert (see Penny Cyclojxedia, s. v. Buxus). See Botany.