1889. P. Beveridge, `Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina,' p. 59:
"These spears are principally made from a tall-growing box (one of the eucalypts) which often attains to an altitude of over 100 feet; it is indigenous to the north-western portion of the colony, and to Riverina; it has a fine wavy grain, consequently easily worked when in a green state. When well seasoned, however, it is nearly as hard as ebony."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 121:
"Native box is greedily eaten by sheep, but its thorny character preserves it from extinction upon sheep-runs: usually a small scrub, in congenial localities it developes into a small tree."
<hw>Box</hw>, <i>n</i>. See succeeding <i>verb</i>.
1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 67:
"Great care must of course be taken that no two flocks come into collision, for a `box,' as it is technically called, causes an infinity of trouble, which is the reason that the stations are so far apart."
<hw>Box</hw>, <i>v</i>. to mix together sheep that ought to be kept separate apparently from "to box" in the sense of to shut up in narrow limits (`O.E.D.' v. i. 5); then to shut up together and so confuse the classification; then the sense of shutting up is lost and that of confusion remains.
1881. A.C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 253:
"All the mobs of different aged lambs which had been hitherto kept apart were boxed up together."