198 CONIFERS 



of this material, both being superintended by the inventor of the process. 

 The leaves of Firs are usually composed of bundles of strong fibres, held 

 together by a resinous substance, and those of the Scotch Fir are generally 

 preferred, as being the longest ; nor is the tree injured by stripping off the 

 foliage, as if those leaves are left which grow at the extremities of the 

 branches, the others are readily renewed, and the leaf -gathering gives employ- 

 ment to many among the poor. In 1842, the directors of the Hospital of 

 Vienna adopted this wool instead of cotton wadding in quilted cover- 

 ings. The aromatic odour which these diflused was found both agreeable 

 and healthful, while it proved obnoxious to insects. Since this period the 

 pine-wool, or wood-wool, has been used in various public institutions in 

 Germany, as well as in cushions for railway carriages ; and blankets, paste- 

 board, and various other articles are made of the fibre ; while rheumatism, 

 nervous affections, and several other maladies have been stated, on good 

 authority, to be greatly benefited by the resinous water procured from it. 

 A prize-medal was awarded at our Great Exhibition of 1851 for materials 

 made from the Pine-needle-wool, prepared from the needles or leaves of the 

 Pine-tree. The bark of the Scotch Fir has been also used in tanning. 



Some legends doubtless were once in existence respecting the Fir, as one 

 of the titles given in honour of the Virgin, in an old edition of Chaucer's 

 "Ballad in Commendation of Our Lady," is " Benigne Braunchlet of the 

 Pine-tree." 



2. Juniper {Junipcrus). 



Common Juniper {/. communis). — Leaves 3 in a whorl, linear and 

 spine-tipped ; flowers small, in the axils of the leaves. On many a widely- 

 stretching moorland we may descry the clumps of Juniper, with their greyish- 

 green branches varying the tints of the landscape. The summer wind passes 

 lio-htly over the shrub, bringing with it some faint tokens of its aroma, an 

 aroma far more powerful if the plant is bruised ; and the winter blasts rush 

 over it, and the winter frosts congeal upon its branches, but it loses nothing 

 of its freshness of tint. Mr. Matthew Arnold describes such a spot as that 

 on which it sometimes grows : — 



"This cirque of open ground, 

 So light and green : the heatlier, which all round 

 Creeps thickly, grows not here, but the pale grass 

 Is strewn with rocks, and many a shiver'd mass 

 Of vein'd white-gleaming quartz, and here and there 

 Dotted with holly and with Juniper." 



This low shrub grows either on fertile or barren soils, on rocky mountains 

 or on boo-s, on hills or in valleys; but chiefly in open and bleak places, 

 though sometimes in woods. It is common, not in this kingdom only, but in 

 all the northern parts of Europe. In England it occurs chiefly on open chalky 

 or sandy places, on hillsides and sea-cliff"s ; but with us it is of low growth, 

 seldom attaining a greater height than five feet, although it occasionally 

 forms a massy trunk, and becomes a small tree, while a dwarf variety trails 

 over the ground. In days when shrubs and trees were cut into various 

 figures, the Juniper was much employed for this purpose. The plant seems 

 to injure the herbage, for the grass about the Juniper is often thin and poor. 



