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Les Misérables vocabulary
8 drugs or drug ingredient vocabulary words
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boxwood
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synonyms: Buxus sempervirens, European box, common box ???
tags: [Rx] [botany]
► definition
Definition:a fragrant european ornamental shrub with small leaves. It is commonly planted in estate gardens because it tolerates close pruning making it ideal for topiaries and border hedges.The leaves were once used medicinally as a quinine subsitute and fever reducer, and apparently (from the usage example below) there were various superstitions around this plant. Some people used the plant as a potpourri.
photo 1: by Sir Gawain under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.photo 2: by Didier Descouens under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
► uses
Uses:
when the wind blows or the thunder growls, it's impossible for me to sleep; then, monsieur, I get up to pray to my patron saint, or cross my shovel and tongs, or to place a branch of boxwood on my bed. You know boxwood conjures the storm; and if they had taken some of it formerly to the Arsenal, on the Billi Tower, it would not have been entirely destroyed by lightning in the year 1537
Charles Paul de Kock. The Barber of Paris
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This table, still completed by its straw-seated chair, is an institution; it exists in all police stations; it is invariably ornamented with a box-wood saucer filled with sawdust and a wafer box of cardboard filled with red wafers, and it forms the lowest stage of official style.
Victor Hugo. Les Misérables
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