70 DWAEF AND SLOW-GBOWINO C0NIFEB8 



One in Glasnevin Botanic Gardens, Dublin, is probably- 

 nearer seventy than fifty, and none of these old specimens 

 has ever shown the least inclination to revert to normal 

 in cultivation. Nor can I trace any specimen of this form 

 that ever did so revert, and if it is to retain the name 

 of var. nana, one must exclude from that name all those 

 prostrate and shrubby forms or states which do, or are 

 likely to, revert in cultivation. This constant semi- 

 prostrate form, with its distinctions in foliage, and size 

 and number of seeds, has as much claim to be given a 

 distinctive name, as J. procumhens, Sieb., has to be 

 separated from J. squamata. 



J. communis, var. compressa, Carr. (" Conif .," 22). 



Syn. : var. hibernica compressa, Carr. ("Man. des 

 Plantes."). 

 J. compressa, Rinz. 

 J. hispanica, Presl. ex Gordon (not Mill.). 



Annual growth J to 1 inch. Young branchlets white- 

 green; old branchlets red-brown. Three-sided; ascending 

 at a very acute angle. Leaves acicular in whorls of 

 threes; thin, very fine and small, from J to J inch; under 

 side convex, bright green, slightly keeled; upper side very 

 glaucous, sunken stomatic band usually divided from base 

 to near apex by a narrow green line. Fruit not seen. 

 Branches very short and densely crowded. The whole 

 forming a tiny fastigiate plant rarely attaining 3 feet in 

 height. 



An indispensable very distinct form, of extremely slow 

 growth, usually known in gardens as J. " hibernica " 

 compressa. I do not know how the legend ascribing 

 the arborescent fastigiate common juniper to Ireland 

 originated; possibly the existence of the Florence Court 

 fastigiate Yew may account for it, but I have neither seen 

 it growing wild in Ireland nor read any authentic record 

 of it being found in this country. Elwes and Henry 

 (vi. 1402) identify the arborescent " var. Tdbernica " with 



