30 GNETACEAE (JOINT FIR FAMILY) 



bose or oblong, marked by the tips rf the flower-scales, 3-6 mm. long; the 

 flesh dry and sweet: seeds usually solitary, ovate, acute, conspicuously acutely 

 angled, the apex brown. UTAH JUNIPER. From the Wasatch Mountains in 

 Utah to California and Arizona. 



3. Juniperus Knightii A. Nels. Bot. Gaz. 25: 198. 1898. A scraggy shrub 

 or small tree, 3-7 m. high, much branched from the base, i. e., trunkless or 

 breaking up into several subequal trunks also freely branched; the branches 

 widely spreading, the lowest almost resting upon the ground : leaves 3-ranked, 

 closely appressed, rhomboidal in outline, thick, not pitted or glandular, long 

 persistent: branches and fruiting branchlets thick and rather rigid: berries 

 blue-green or copper-colored, marked by the points of the flower scales, ovoid 

 or subglobose, 7-10 mm. in diameter; the flesh dry and closely adherent but 

 more or less resinous (not sweet) : seed solitary, ovate, obtuse, slightly grooved 

 above, rounded or tumid at base, probably not maturing till the autumn of the 

 second year. DESERT JUNIPER. Common in arid situations (canons and 

 slopes) ; central to southwest Wyoming, probably adjacent Utah, and in similar 

 situations in western Colorado. 



4. Juniperus scopulorum Sarg. Gard. & For. 10: 423. 1897. A tree 10- 

 20 m. high, with short, stout trunk, or sometimes branched from the base (in 

 very exposed situations), often a mere shrub: leaves opposite, appressed, acute 

 (in seedlings long and subulate), glandular on the back, dark green or pale and 

 glaucous: fruit ripening at the end of the second season, globose, bright blue, 

 with glaucous bloom; the flesh resinous: seeds usually 2 (often more), acute, 

 prominently grooved and angled. J ' . virginiana. ROCKY MOUNTAIN JUNI- 

 PER. Widely distributed in the mountains and table-lands of western America, 

 at middle elevations. 



5. Juniperus communis L. Sp. PI. 1040. 1753. A low tree or more often 

 an erect shrub : leaves in threes, subulate, rigid, prickly pointed, straight and 

 slender, 1-2 cm. long: berry dark blue. Only the shrubby form within our 

 range and that passing into the variety 



5a. Juniperus communis sibirica (Burgsd.) Rydb. Contrib. U. S. Nat. 

 Herb. 3: 533. 1896. A low spreading shrub, rarely 1 m. high, forming dense, 

 usually circular patches: leaves in threes, crowded, rigid, channeled, and often 

 whitish above: berries small, fleshy, bluish, 1-3-seeded. /. communis alpina. 

 Rocky hillsides and mountain slopes; throughout our range. 



6. Juniperus Sabina L. Sp. PI. 1039. 1753. A depressed shrub usually less 

 than 1 m. high, in our range wholly prostrate, the stems creeping and rooting: 

 leaves short and scale-like, 4-ranked, on young plants subulate and spiny- 

 tipped: berry light blue, glaucous, borne on short peduncle-like branchlets: 

 seeds 1-4. On banks and slopes; not frequent; Wyoming and Montana, east 

 to New York. 



9. GNETACEAE Lindl. JOINT Fra FAMILY 



Shrubs or small trees, mostly with jointed opposite or fascicled branches 

 and foliaceous or scale-like opposite (or ternate) exstipulate leaves, the flowers 

 mostly dioecious, with decussate persistent bracts. Staminate flowers in 

 aments, with solitary or monadelphous stamens within a membranous bifid 

 calyx-like perianth, the anther-cells dehiscent by a pore or chink at the apex. 

 Pistillate flower an erect sessile ovule terminated by an exserted style-like 

 process, included within a perianth which becomes hardened and often thick- 

 ened in fruit. 



1. EPHEDRA L. JOINT I^RS 



Shrubs with numerous Equisetum-like branches. Leaves reduced to sheath- 

 ing scales, persistent or deciduous. Inflorescence axillary; the 3-8 filaments 

 united into a clavate stamineal column. 



