HARDY CONIFEROUS TREES 79 



of the branch tips suffused with a golden yellow 

 colour. 



J. COMMUNIS, LinncBus. Common Juniper. 

 Greater part of the Northern Hemisphere, Britain. 

 — Wliether as regards height, shape, or arrange- 

 ment and colouring of foliage, this must be 

 described as a very variable species. Altitude 

 and elevation have no doubt much to do with 

 this marked dissimilarity in appearance, but 

 certainly not all, for even on our low-ljdng commons 

 and do\vns the variety afforded by these wild 

 jmiipers is something remarkable. In height we 

 find them of all sizes, up to as much as 24 feet, 

 some tail, straight, and tapering gradually through- 

 out, others wdth rounded tops and nearly equal 

 diameter from base to tip, while others again 

 assume the spreading habit of growth, often form- 

 ing broad, dense masses of not more than a couple 

 of feet in height. Usually the female or berry- 

 bearing plant is of lower growth and with more 

 brightly tinted silvery foliage than the male or 

 poUen-bearing one. The colouring of fohage is at 

 all times beautiful, though varpng greatly in 

 different plants — sometimes a rich greenish brown, 

 relieved here and there by silvery tones, at others 

 a uniform greyish green, the dainty and delicate 

 leaders alone being of a rich, warm browTi. The 

 leaves are awl-shaped, stout, sharp, and thickly 

 arranged, var^dng in length and width, each being 

 about three-eighths of an inch long, green or 

 greyish brown on one side, and of a beautiful and 

 distinct silvery tone on the other. Berries are 

 produced very freely, in some cases constituting 

 dense masses, the colour varying with age from 



