286 ODOROGRAPHIA. 



The leaves yield, by distillation with water, a stereopten-like 

 body having the fruity odour of the fresh plant. The matter 

 extracted by ether, amounting to 4-77 per cent., is fragrant, green, 

 and of a greasy consistence. Examined by Hooper,* the leaves left, 

 on gentle incineration as much as 15*29 per cent, of ash, which 

 contained a very large amount of salt, thus indicating the habitat 

 of the plant as being in close proximity to the sea. 



If the fresh leaves be carefully dried in the shade they preserve 

 their aroma. 



Juniper. 



Juniperus communis, Lin. (Sowerby, Eng. Bot., 1110; 

 Pharmacographia, p. 565; Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants, 

 p. 255). This Coniferous shrub or small tree is a native of Greece 

 and widely distributed in Europe from the Mediterranean to the 

 Arctic regions. It is also found in Asiatic Eussia, in the higher 

 regions of the Himalava, and in Xorth America. Over this vast 

 area the common Juniper presents several varieties. In Europe it 

 is generally met with as a bush of 2 to 6 feet in height, but in the 

 interior of Xorway it forms a forest tree of 30 to 40 feet, living a 

 hundred years, t In the high mountainous regions of temperate 

 Europe, and in arctic countries, it is a lowly shrub rising only 

 about a foot above the surface of the soil. 



The leaves are evergreen, subulate, rigid, sharp-pointed, spreading 

 and opposite or in threes, usually glaucous above and dark green 

 below. Flowers axillary, sessile, small, dioecious, the males 

 discharging a copious cloud of yellow pollen ; the females green, on 

 scaly stalks. The fruit is commonly called a " berry," but is in 

 reality that kind of cone called by botanists a fjcdhulus, which has 

 lieshy coalescent carpella, whose heads are much enlarged. ;|: It 

 requires two seasons to arrive at maturity ; it is then about the 

 size of a pea, of a blackish-purple colour, covered Ijy a glaucous 

 bloom. These fruit are marked superiorly with a triradiate groove, 



* Pharm. Record, 1st August, 1888. 



t Schiiheler, Cultiirpflanzen Noiwegens, Christiana, 1875, p. 143. 



::: Pereira, Mat. Med., ii., pt. i., p. .326, figs. 150, 151. 



