frutex, a little, low, dwarf tree, or a woody vegetable, of a size less than a tree; and which, instead of one single stem, frequently from the same root puts forth several sets or stems. See PLANT and TREE. Such are privet, phillyrea, holly, box, honey-fuckle, &c. Shrubs and trees put forth in autumn a kind of buttons, or gems, in the axis of the leaves; these buttons are as to many little ova, which, coming to expand by the warmth of the following spring, open into leaves and flowers. By this, together with the height, some distinguish shrubs from suffruticet, or under shrubs, which are low bushes, that do not put forth any of these buttons, as sage, thyme, &c.

The two hardiest shrubs we are possessed of are the ivy and box; these stand the severity of our sharpest winters unhurt, while other shrubs perish, and trees have their solid bodies split and torn to pieces. In the hard winter of the year 1683, these two shrubs suffered no injury any where; though the yews and hollies, which are generally supposed very hardy, were that winter in some places killed, and in others stripped of their leaves, and damaged in their bark. Furze bushes were found to be somewhat harder than these, but they sometimes perished, at least down to the root. The broom seemed to occupy the next step of hardiness beyond these. This lived where the others died, and where even this died, the juniper shrubs were sometimes found unhurt. This last is the only shrub that approaches to the hardiness of the box and ivy, but even it does not quite come up to them; for while they suffer nothing in whatever manner they are exposed, the juniper, though it bears cold well under the shelter of other trees, yet cannot bear the vicissitudes of heat and cold; insomuch that some juniper shrubs were found half dead and half vigorous; that side which faced the mid-day sun having perished by the successive thawings and freezings of its sap; while that which was not exposed to the vicissitudes of heat had borne the cold perfectly well. Such shrubs as are not hardy enough to defy the winter, but appear half dead in the spring, may often be recovered by Mr Evelyn's method of beating their branches with a flender hazel-wand, to strike off the withered leaves and buds, and give a free passage to the air to the internal parts. Where this fails, the method is to cut them down to the quick, and if no part of the trunk appears in a growing condition, they must be taken off down to the level of the ground. Philosophical Transactions, No 165.