BOWRING. 385 BOX-ELDER. sociated with .Tereniy Bentham, who appointed him onp of his executors, and intrusted him with the editinjr of liis collected works. He became the first editor of the Westmiuslcr Rerietr. estab- lished in 1824. In 1828 he visited Holland, and his letters — which appeared in the Morning Ucr- aid, and were afterwards translated into Dutch — jirocured for him the degree of doctor of laws from the Iniversity of Groninjien. Subsequent travels were midcrtaken. on a commission from the Hritish Government, to inquire into the com- mercial relations of certain States. He visited Switzerland. Italy, Kgypt, Syria, and finally the States of the (ierman Zollverein. and every- where found materials for valuable reports. He was a member of the House of Commons from 1835 to 1837, and again from 1841 to 1849. and actively promoted the adoption of free trade. In 1849, Bowring was appointed British Consul at Hong Kong, and superintendent of trade in China He returned in 1853, and in the following year was made knight, and subsequently Governor of Hong Kong. In 185fi an insult having been offered to a Chinese vessel, said to have been under the protection of the British flag, Bowring, without consulting the home Government, ordered an attack on certain Chinese forts — a proceeding Avhich excited considerable dissatisfaction in the country and produced a ministerial crisis. In 1855 he concluded a commercial treaty with Siam. and gave an interesting account of his visit in The Kinrfiiom rind People of Siam. In 1858 he visited Manila, and afterwards published an account of the Philippine Islands. In 1861 Bow- ring was sent on an official mission to Italy. He died November 23, 1872. Consult his Autobio- firaphical Keminisecnces (London, 1877). BOWS, boz. The name of an old fiddler in the novel /V«de«His, by Thackeray. Though him- self in love with the inane Emily Costigan, he is inspired by no selfish motive when he helps free Aithur from her father's designs upon him. BOWSER, bou'zcr. Edwakd Albert (1845 — ). An American mathematician, born at Sackville, Xew Brunswick. He graduated at Rutgers Col- lege in 1868, was appointed professor of mathe- matics there in 1870, and director of the United States Geodetic Survey of New Jersey in 1875. His publications include: Analytic Geometry (188(j): Differential and Integral Calculus (1880); Analytic Mechanics {ISSi) : Hydrome- chanics (1885); College Algebra (1888); Plane and t<olid (leometry (1890) ; Treatise on Trigo- nometry (1892) : and Logarithmic 7*06/6.9(1895). BOWSPRIT, bo'sprit' (bow + sprit, OE. spret, a spear). A large boom, spar, or mast projecting over the stem or head of a ship. Its use is to carry sail forward, as a means of counteracting the efTect of the after sails, and keeping the ship well balanced. It is also one of the chief supports of the foremast, which is fastened to it by large stays or ropes. In ordi- nary ships, the bowsprit rises at an angle of about 30° from the horizon. ' It is secured in place by heavy framing at the heel or inboard end — just inside the bow by iron straps or lashings of wire rope called the gammoning, which hold it down to the stem, and outside the ship by the bobstays, which extend from the bowsprit tf) cutwater. BOWSTRING (bO'strlng') HEMP. See Hemp. Itow.srm.No. BOWZYBEtrS, bou'zl-be'iis. One of the best characters in The .Shepherd's Week, a series of parodies on the artificial pastoral poetry of his time, by John Gay (1714). BOX, Buxus (Lat. buxus, from Gk. wu^os, pyj-os). A genus of plants of the natural order Eui>horbiace.-e: evergreen shrubs or small trees, with opi)osite leaves, entire at the margins, and with greenish, inconspicuous flowers in little axillary clusters, the male and female flowers distinct, but on the .same plant. The most im- portant species is the common box {Buxus scmpervirens) , which grows wild in the south of Europe, and in some parts of Asia, attaining a height of twenty or more feet; its leaves are oval, generally from half to three-quarters of an ihch in length, smooth and shining, of a deep green color, and a compact habit of growth, there are several cultivated varieties distin- guished by difl'erently variegated leaves — gold- edged, silver-edged, etc. Dwarf box grows only to a height of two or three feet, and is very com- monly used to form borders for garden-plots, being kept down by clipping to a height of a few inches. The box bears clipping remarkably well, and it was much used in formal gardens for this purpose. The wood of the box is heavv, of a beautiful, pale-yellow color, remarkably hard and strong, of a fine, regular, and comp.ict tex- ture, capable of a beautiful polish, and not liable to be worm-eaten. It is much valued for the purpose of the turner and the wood-carver; is preferred to every other kind of wood for the manufacture of flutes, flageolets, and other wind- instruments, as well as of mathematical instru- ments, and is unrivaled for wood-engraving. ( See WooD-ExGRAVi.NG. ) Spain, Portugal, Circassia, and Georgia send into the market large quanti- ties of bo.xwood. The iliuorca box, or Bale- aric box (Buxus bttleariea) , a native o^f Minorca, Sardinia, Corsica. Turkey, etc.. is a larger tree than the conmion box. the wood is of a bright yellow, and inferior to the true boxwood, but is exported in large quantities from Constantinople. The earliest knowTi fossil forms of Buxus have been found in the Pliocene deposits of France. For illustration, see Beech. BOX AND COX. A short farce by John M. Morton. A landlady. Mrs. Bouncer, unknown to both, lets her single room to two men of these names, one of whom works in the daytime, the other at night. All goes well, and :Mrs, Bouncer gets double rent till the day w'orker has a holi- day and the night worker finds a stranger in pos- session of his room: upon which there is an amusing explanation, which ends in their swear- ing eternal friendship, and in Mrs. Bouncer's continuing to get double rent. BOXBERRY. .See Galltiiebia. BOX-ELDER (box, the tree -f elder or alder), or Asii-Leaved Maple (Acer negundo, or Xegundo aceroides) . One of the hardiest and most widely distributed trees in the United States, ranging as it does from Vermont to Florida, and westward to the Rocky Mountains. In rich river-bottoms it often attains a height of more than six-ty feet and a diameter of three feet. The wood is light and soft, and is suitable for woodenware, wood-pulp. etc. The box-elder is considered a good shade-tree, and it has been ex- tensively employed in plantings in the Western
