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Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa. Details recorded here should be sourced; unknown information is left blank.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
 | This article needs more citations. (November 2011) |
| Buxus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Common box, Buxus sempervirens | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Buxales |
| Family: | Buxaceae |
| Genus: | Buxus L. |
| Species | |
|
About 70 species; see text | |
Buxus is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box and boxwood.[1][2][3]
The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, with the majority of species being tropical or subtropical; only the European and some Asian species are frost-tolerant. Centres of diversity occur in Cuba (about 30 species), China (17 species) and Madagascar (9 species).
They are slow-growing evergreen shrubs and small trees, growing to 2–12 m (rarely 15 m) tall. The leaves are opposite, rounded to lanceolate, and leathery; they are small in most species, typically 1.5–5 cm long and 0.3–2.5 cm broad, but up to 11 cm long and 5 cm broad in B. macrocarpa. The flowers are small and yellow-green, monoecious with both sexes present on a plant. The fruit is a small capsule 0.5–1.5 cm long (to 3 cm in B. macrocarpa), containing several small seeds.
The genus splits into three genetically distinct sections, each section in a different region, with the Eurasian species in one section, the African (except northwest Africa) and Madagascan species in the second, and the American species in the third. The African and American sections are genetically closer to each other than to the Eurasian section.[4]
The genomes of Buxus austro-yunnanensis and Buxus sinica have been sequenced.[5][6]
Box plants are commonly grown as hedges and for topiary.
In Britain and mainland Europe, box is subject to damage from caterpillars of Cydalima perspectalis which can devastate a box hedge within a short time. This is a recently introduced species first noticed in Europe in 2007 and in the UK in 2008 but spreading. There were 3 UK reports of infestation in 2011, 20 in 2014 and 150 in the first half of 2015.[7]
Owing to its fine grain it is a good wood for fine wood carving, although this is limited by the small sizes available. It is also resistant to splitting and chipping, and thus useful for decorative or storage boxes.
Traditional Japanese boxwood combs are called Tsuge Gushi and have been in production since the Heian Period.[8]
As a timber or wood for carving it is "boxwood" in all varieties of English.
Owing to the relatively high density of the wood, boxwood is often used for chess pieces; unstained boxwood for the white pieces, and stained ('ebonized') boxwood for the black pieces in lieu of ebony.[9]
The extremely fine endgrain of box makes it suitable for woodblock printing and woodcut blocks, for which it was the usual material in Europe. In the 16th century, boxwood was used to create intricate decorative carvings, including intricate rosary prayer beads. As of 2016, the largest collection of these carvings is at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.[10]
High quality wooden spoons have usually been carved from box, with beech being the usual cheaper substitute.
Due to its high density, resistance to chipping, and relatively low cost, boxwood has been used to make parts for various stringed instruments since antiquity.[11] It is mostly used to make tailpieces, chin rests and tuning pegs, but may be used for a variety of other parts as well. Other woods used for this purpose are rosewood and ebony.
Boxwood was a common material for the manufacture of recorders in the eighteenth century, and a large number of mid- to high-end instruments made today are produced from one or other species of boxwood. Boxwood was once a popular wood for other woodwind instruments, and was among the traditional woods for Great Highland bagpipes before tastes turned to imported dense tropical woods such as cocuswood, ebony, and African blackwood.[12]
Prior to the development of plastics, boxwood was important to a wide range of fields from engineering to arts, construction to cartography, due to its density and stability making it one of the best available materials for measurement scales and technical drawing rulers. Alternative materials of the era were ivory, paper, and metal. Disadvantages of ivory included that it would slightly shrink over time, the size and shape of blanks was limited by that of the tusk, and supply was limited. Paper was soft, difficult to use, and did not last long. Metal marked the surface it was being used on and increased expense.[13] Ebony was another dense and stable wood prized for drawing instruments but typically only if scales were not necessary; boxwood's light color contrasted much better with scales.
Devices made of boxwood included set squares, scale rulers, yardsticks, folding rulers, slide rules, Marquois scales, T-squares, protractors, and a wide range of other measuring, metering, and straight-edge devices and tools, as well as general functional items such as combs, weaving shuttles, etc.
A boxwood rule generally refers to a style of folding ruler with brass hinge(s).[14]
General Thomas F. Meagher decorated the hats of the men of the Irish Brigade with boxwood during the American Civil War, as he could find no shamrock.[15]
box 1. A genus ( Buxus) of ... shrubs...; specially B. sempervirens. boxwood, n. 1. The wood of the box-tree; 2. The tree or shrub itself.
box 1. …of the genus Buxus, esp. B. sempervirens… boxwood 1. the…wood of the box… 2. the…shrub itself.
box 1. …of the genus Buxus, esp. B. sempervirens… boxwood 1. the…wood of the box… 2. the…shrub itself.
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Buxus is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box and boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, with the majority of species being tropical or subtropical; only the European and some Asian species are frost-tolerant. Centres of diversity occur in Cuba (about 30 species), China (17 species) and Madagascar (9 species). They are slow-growing evergreen shrubs and small trees, growing to 2–12 m (rarely 15 m) tall. The leaves are opposite, rounded to lanceolate, and leathery; they are small in most species, typically 1.5–5 cm long and 0.3–2.5 cm broad, but up to 11 cm long and 5 cm broad in B. macrocarpa. The flowers are small and yellow-green, monoecious with both sexes present on a plant. The fruit is a small capsule 0.5–1.5 cm long (to 3 cm in B. macrocarpa), containing several small seeds. The genus splits into three genetically distinct sections, each section in a different region, with the Eurasian species in one section, the African (except northwest Africa) and Madagascan species in the second, and the American species in the third. The African and American sections are genetically closer to each other than to the Eurasian section. The genomes of Buxus austro-yunnanensis and Buxus sinica have been sequenced.
Buxus sempervirens, the common box, European box, or boxwood, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Buxus, native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia, from southern England south to northern Morocco, and east through the northern Mediterranean region to Turkey. Buxus colchica of western Caucasus and B. hyrcana of northern Iran and eastern Caucasus are commonly treated as synonyms of B. sempervirens.
Buxus citrifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Buxaceae. It is a large shrub or small tree native to Colombia, Panama, Suriname, and Venezuela. It grows in lowland tropical dry forest up to 1,000 metres elevation. The hermaphrodite shrub, having both the male and female reproductive organs in the same individual, is 3–5 m tall with a 5 cm diameter at breast height. Twigs are free from hair and somewhat tetragonal, while the angle ridges are prominent. The leaves are elliptic to narrowly elliptic-ovate while being wedge-shaped or round at the base. The leaves are 5–12 cm long, 2–5 cm wide having the sub-3-veined from the base with the outer 2 nerves forming submarginal veins. The petiole margined and 2–5 mm long. The complete flower head of a plant including stems, stalks, bracts, and flowers, inflorescence, is short only about 1–2 cm long axillary. Cymose, definite inflorescence, with a single terminal female flower and several lateral male flowers. The bract, modified leaf, is triangular and 1–2 mm long. Pedicels of male flowers 2–4 mm long, the female flowers sessile. Flowers are white and fragrant. Buxus citrifolia has been considered similar to another species in the family Buxaceae – Buxus laevigata. B. laevigata – native to Jamaica – differs from B. citrifolia in having smaller fruits and flowers. When comparing them to B. citrifolia, the elliptic leaves are broader and has more pronounced secondary venation and more marginal lateral veins. The Martinique plant has also often been confused with B. citrifolia, however, the Martinique plant has been found to have long capsule horns and bigger flowers than B. citrifolia. The species was first described as Tricera citrifolia by Carl Ludwig Willdenow in 1805. In 1826 Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel placed the species in genus Buxus as B. citrifolia.
Buxus colchica (syn. B. hyrcana) is a species of Buxus native to western Georgia, as well as parts of the adjacent southern Russia and northeastern Turkey. It occurs in a truly native state in western Georgia's Colchic forests, but has since naturalized to surrounding areas. Its name is derived from Colchis, an ancient kingdom that was located at what is now the center of the plant's area of distribution. Buxus colchica is threatened by habitat loss and defoliation by the caterpillars of an introduced moth species, Cydalima perspectalis. It is an evergreen shrub or small tree, very closely related to Buxus sempervirens, and commonly treated as a synonym of it. From a strictly visual standpoint, it is practically indistinguishable from B. sempervirens; however, distinct habitats where Buxus colchica has been found indicate potential for varying physiological tolerances to environmental stresses.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
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