12 BULLETIN UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 



Juniperus communis var. montana Ait. Hort. Kew 3 414 (1788). J. Sibiriea 



Burgsti., J. communis var. alpina Wall. Alpine variety. This forms 

 dense mats at and near timber line and is mostly prostrate through- 

 out and usually has shorter and blunter leaves. The berries of both the 

 varieties are blue with a white bloom and are barely edible. The species 

 has little use in Montana, though the branches make good floors for beds. 

 The plants have a strong odor Iwhen bruised and produce juniper oil in 

 abundance when distilled. The berries form a portion of the food of grouse 

 at high elevations and the mats form the best of shelter from enemies and 

 the weather. It grows best on steep ridges and exposed slopes and cliffs. 

 MacDougal peak, MacDougal; also Umbach. It is common. 



Juniperus Virginiana L. 1039. Red Cedar. Red Juniper. This is the 

 characteristic tree of the Lake shores, being found everywhere just at the 

 storm line. It also grows on subalpine cliffs straggling over the rocks. Along 

 the shores it occurs in two forms, the more common one being a bu.shy and 

 rounded clump with one or more trunks 10 to 20 feet high growing on 

 rocks or shallow soil. Where the soil is deep it assumes the proportions 

 of a tree even 75 feet high and often pyramidal in outline. It varies in 

 thickness from a few inches to almost 2 feet. The bark is rather thin and 

 dark. The branches are smooth and olive colored and do not flake up at 

 all for several feet in length, then they flake slowly, but not at all as in 

 the variety which grows in more arid conditions and therefore flakes up 

 more quickly. The inner bark is dull and the wood of the twigs white to 

 the core. The spray is fine and open. Berries about 2 mm. wide and blue 

 when ripe. The wood of the old trees has a narrow white band near the 

 bark, the rest is dull red and not purplish as in the variety. The odor is 

 strong and aromatic. The texture of the wood is compact, very fibrous and 

 splitting into very slender splinters, very flexible, heavy. It makes the best 

 of fire wood, good posts, is rarely large enough for lumber and is much 

 used as an insect exterminator because of the strong odor. The bark of the 

 main trunk is not evidently shreddy, but is deeply cracked in narrow ridges, 

 and It never hangs in long shreds floating in the wind as on the white 

 juniper. Where the bark cracks up on the twigs it does so in rectangular 

 pieces, not in papery shreds. The distinction of rounded top separating this 

 from the variety amounts to nothing. The ripening of the berries is indif- 

 ferently annual or biennial, though in the typical species it is more nearly 

 annual. The only distinction that amounts to anything between this and 

 the variety is the finer spray, smaller berries and dull purple wood. Also 

 at McDonald peak at 5,500 alt.; Wild Horse Island, Elrod; Bigfork, Umbach. 

 Not seen in Sperry Glacier region. 



Juniperus Sabina L. 1039. Creeping Juniper. This belongs to the Vir- 

 giniana section and is creeping, flat on the ground for the most part. It 

 grows on dry slopes, but does not seem to be nearer our region than the 

 Atlantic slope, except at Garrison and Upper Marias Pass and Deer Lodge 

 Valley. 



Juniperus Virginiana var. scopulorum (Sargent Gard. and Forest 10 420 

 (1897) as species). This variety does not grow in the Flathead region unless 

 it occurs on the west side on rolling hills. The wood is bright purple, the 

 berries about 4.5 mm. wide, the spray much shorter and a little thicker, and 

 the bark of the twigs flaking up except for a short distance near the ends 

 into small blocks and leaving the purplish under bark exposed. It abounds 

 on dry hills and cliffs where the rainfall is less than 20 inches per annum 

 throughout eastern Montana and southward through Idaho. In Utah it is 

 found only in the mountains on cliffs and slopes. It is mostly with rounded 

 top, but is occasionally pyramidal, but rarely reaches 50 feet high then. The 

 differences between the type and variety are only such as would occur in a 

 moister climate. There is a Coast form of this plant along the Sound whose 

 relationship is not yet fully established, but it is probably only the most de- 

 veloped form, due to better soil and still more humid climate. 



