JUNIPEEUS 69 



one name of var. nana, I personally think it was a mistake 

 not to distinguish this particular form, which is usually 

 described as the type of var. nana, from the many local 

 and geographical forms, which vary little, except in habit, 

 from the arborescent common juniper. In most localities 

 where the arborescent type is found, shrubby or prostrate 

 forms can usually be found at no great distance, either 

 on adjacent hills or sometimes even among arborescent 

 forms: I have often found them in Western Ireland. 

 But such forms are really merely prostrate or shrubby 

 " states " of the type, and are liable to revert to the type 

 in lowland cultivation. 



Unfortunately one result of calling all these prostrate 

 forms var. nana has been to confuse these chance " states " 

 with the distinct typical form. Professor Henry (Elwes 

 and Henry, vol. vi., p. 1401) mentions that Karchner and 

 Schroter are of opinion that var. nana is not, as some 

 believe, a species, but a mere climatic form, adducing as 

 proof that sowings of seed of var. nana at Berlin and 

 Zurich gave seedlings of the arborescent type ; and plants 

 of the type moved from Fontainebleau to Mont Blanc 

 assumed the habit of var. nana in three years. 



This statement would be more convincing if one was 

 certain that (1) the sowings were of seed of var. naiia type, 

 and (2) that the Mont Blanc plants assumed the distinct 

 foliage, etc., of var. nana type. But as regards the first, 

 var. na7ia is a very shy seeder in cultivation, whereas the 

 prostrate " states " of the arborescent type seed quite 

 freely, and I think it highly probable that the seed-sowing 

 experiments were not of var. nana type, but of some 

 prostrate form identical with the arborescent type except 

 in habit; and that, as regards the second statement, the 

 probabilities are that the arborescent type simply assumed 

 the prostrate state on Mont Blanc, and did not, in fact, 

 become identical with var. nana type. 



There are old specimens of var. nana type in the 

 British Isles. I know of three of over fifty years of age. 



