CONIFERiE. 861 



1. J. commu'nis. 



Learesternate, spreading, subulate, mucronate, longer than the berry. An 

 evergreen, spreading shrub, with numerous, prostrate brandies, growing in 

 dry woods and hills, often forming entangled beds. Leaves arranged in 

 whorls of 3, 5 — 8 lines long, acerose-lanceolate, ending in a sharp, bristly 

 point, channeled and glaucous on the midrib above, keeled and green below. 

 Barren flowers in small, axillary aments or con^s; fertile ones on a distinct 

 shrub, small, axillary, sessile. Berries roundish, oblong, dark blue, ripening 

 the second year from the flovyer. They are then sweetish, with a taste of 

 turpentine. In medicine they are diuretic and cordial. May. Juniper. 



2. J. ViRGINIA'NA. L, J. Sabina. Hook. 

 Upper leaves imbricate in 4 rows, ovate-lanceolate, pungently acute, ap- 



pressed, older ones acerose, cuspidate, spreading ; trunk arboreous. Found 

 throughout the U. S., but chiefly in the maritime parts, growing in dry, 

 rocky situations. It is a tree of middle size, sending out numerous, horizon- 

 tal branches. Leaves dark green, the younger ones small, ovate, acute, 

 scale-like, overlaying each other in 4 rows, upon the subdivided branchlets ; 

 the older ones ^ inch long. Flowers inconspicuous, the staminate in oblong, 

 terminal aments, i inch long ; the fertile on separate trees, producing small, 

 bluish berries coveted with a white powder. The wood is fine-grained and 

 compact, of a reddish hue, very light and durable. It is used for fences, 

 aqueducts, tubs and pails, and in the manufacture of drawing pencils. April. 

 May. Red Cedar. 



^. prostrata ; leaves ovate, submucronate, glandular in the middle, appress- 

 ed ; icr/ics tubercular ; sfew prostrate, creeping. A shrub, on gravely siiores, 

 with creeping branches 4 — 8 feet long. Prostrate Juniper. 



5. TAX US. 



Flowers dioecious or monoecious, surrounded wilh numer- 

 ous scales. Sterile. — Stamens 8 — 10, nionadelphous ; anthers 

 peltate. 6 — S-celled, cells deliiscent beneath. Fertile, solitary, 

 consisting of a single ovule, becoming in fruit a fleshy, 1-seed- 

 ed drupe. 



Gr. Tolov, an arrow; arrows were formerly poisoned with the juice of the 

 yew-tree. Lvs. evergreen, linear, alternate. 



T. Canade'ksis. 



Leaves linear, mucronate, 2-ranked, revolute on the margin ; sterile recep- 

 tacles globose. A small, evergreen shrub, with the general aspect of a dwarf 

 hemlock spruce (Plnus Gmadcvsis). It grows on thin, rocky soils in shady- 

 places, 2 — 3 feet high. Leaves nearly an inch long, arranged in 2 opposite 

 rows, on the sides of the branchlets. Staminate flowers in small, roundish, 

 axillary heads. Drupes oval, concave or open at the summit, red and juicy 

 when mature. May. Dioarf Ycio. Ground Hcrnloc/:. 



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