308 1 he Junipers : Red Cedars. 



trees. The first grows to the height of seventy feet, and is said to 

 be a beautiful tree. 



THE JUNIPERS. (Genus Juniperus.) 



1263. Of these there are about twenty-five species, widely dis- 

 tributed over the northern hemisphere, in temperate and cold cli- 

 mates, but in the tropics only on high mountains. They are mostly 

 small trees, thick at the base, as compared with their height, and a 

 few of them growing to a large size. The bark is generally thin 

 and fibrous, and the wood fine and compact (but not hard), durable, 

 and exceedingly slow of growth. The outer layer of wood and the 

 inner bark are resinous. The fruit ripens the second year, and is 

 commonly called a berry, which, in the common jrmiper, is em- 

 ployed medicinally. There are some eight other species of the 

 juniper in North America, and most of them occur within the 

 United States. The principal of these are as follows : 



1264. THE RED CEDAR (Juniperus Virginiana). This is the 

 largest and most widely spread of the junipers, extending from 

 about latitude 45 in Canada, to the Gulf States, and from the At- 

 lantic to the mountains that border the Pacific States. Between the 

 Sierras and the Wahsatch Mountains it occurs at an elevation of 

 5,000 to 7,000 feet above tide, aud is there a small tree, usually not 

 over a dozen feet high, and of low, compact form, scattered over 

 the dry slopes, but nowhere in groves of much density. 



1265. In Tennessee, this tree occurs native to greatest perfection 

 along the out-crop of the " glady limestone " forming an irregular 

 belt, somewhat circular in outline, extending quite across the cen- 

 tral part of the State. It has there been found three feet in diame- 

 ter, near the ground, and sixty feet to the branches. It is being 

 rapidly worked up, and in many counties, where once abundant, 

 it is now exhausted. 



1266. The red cedar occurs along rocky ravines, in the region 

 bordering upon the Great Plains, where it is the principal conifer 

 found native, and the one most capable of cultivation for ornamental 

 and useful purposes. 



1267. It is propagated from the seeds, and for planting, the ber- 

 ries should be bruised and mixed with an equal or greater bulk of 

 wet wood ashes. In three weeks the alkali will have cut the resin- 

 ous gum, when the seeds can be washed clean from the pulp. This 



