94 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



Wood light, hard, not strong, slightly fragrant, brown streaked with red; largely 

 used for fencing, fuel, telegraph-poles, and railway-ties. 



Distribution. From Brazos County over the low limestone hills of western and 

 southern Texas, and southward into Mexico; forming great thickets and growing to 

 its largest size on the San Bernardo River; much smaller farther westward, and 

 usually shrubby at the limits of vegetation on the high mountains of central Mexico. 



9. Juniperus Virginiana, L. Red Cedar. Savin. 



Leaves in opposite pairs, acute or acuminate with short slender points or occa- 

 sionally obtuse, rounded and glandular or eglandular on the back, about Jg' long, 



dark blue-green or glaucous, at the north turning russet or yellow-brown during the 

 winter, beginning in their third season to grow hard and woody, and remaining two 

 or three years longer on the branches; on young plants and vigorous branches linear- 

 lanceolate, long-pointed, light yellow-green, without glands, ^'-f ' long. Flovrers : 

 dioecious or very rarely monoecious; staminate with 10 or 12 stamens, their connec- 

 tives rounded and entire, with 4 or occasionally 5 or 6 pollen-sacs; scales of the 

 pistillate flower violet color, acute and spreading, becoming obliterated from the 

 fruit. Fruit subglobose, Y-^' in diameter, pale green when fully grown, dark blue 

 and covered with a glaucous bloom at maturity, with a firm epidermis, thin sweet- 

 ish resinous flesh, and 1 or 2 or rarely 3 or 4 seeds; seeds acute and occasionally 

 apiculate at the apex, marked below with a comparatively small 2-lobed hilum, 

 i'-i' long, with a thick bony outer coat, a pale brown membranaceous inner coat, 

 and 2 cotyledons. 



A tree, occasionally 100 high, with a trunk 3-4 in diameter, often lobed and 

 eccentric, and frequently buttressed toward the base, generally not more than 40- 

 50 tall, with short slender branches horizontal on the lower part of the tree, erect 

 above, forming a narrow compact pyramidal head, in old age usually becoming broad 

 and round-topped or irregular, and slender 4-angled branchlets terete after the dis- 

 appearance of the leaves and covered with close dark brown bark tinged with red or 

 gray. Bark ^'-j thick, light brown tinged with red, and separated into long narrow 

 scales fringed on the margins, and persistent for many years. "Wood light, close- 

 grained, brittle, not strong, dull red, with thin nearly white sapwood, very fragrant, 

 easily worked; largely used for posts, the sills of buildings, the interior finish of 



