VII. ON AN ARBORESCENT VARIETY OF Juniperus communis, 



OF LlNN^US, OCCURRING IN NOVA SCOTIA, AND NOT 

 PREVIOUSLY NOTICED IN OUR FLORA. BY J. SOMERS, 



M. D, Halifax, N. S. 



(Communicated llth December, 1893 ; received 15th April, 1896.) 



Some time ago my attention was directed to a variety of our 

 common juniper not commonly met with. Mr. William Gibson 

 of this city, had for some years given much time to investigating 

 the subject. He introduced rne to several arborescent junipers, 

 some of them, one at least, growing to the size of a lofty shrub. 

 Another, he tells me, grew to the size of a small tree, the bole of 

 which he judged would be four inches in diameter. The locality 

 of these was on the Dartmouth shore of the harbor, near the old 

 windmill. The larger one, which I did not see, grew on the 

 Halifax side, near the Cotton Factory road. He informs me he 

 has been observing the growth of the shrub juniper for over 

 twenty years. Some have disappeared in process of clearing, 

 others still remain. At the time I visited the place where most 

 of those plants grew, Mr. Power, of the Public Gardens, procured 

 several specimens for transplantation. I think I am correct in 

 stating that some success was attained in this. I know from 

 experience of earlier years that though the low juniper was 

 common in our vicinity, the shrub form was not. With us, the 

 ordinary conception of juniperus communis is of a low shrubby 

 plant, decumbent, froming a circle of growth from the centre 

 towards the periphery, the patches varying from two to six 

 feet in diameter, depending on the surroundings, rarely rising in 

 growth two feet above the surface, the tough fibrous roots 

 spreading themselves somewhat deeply in the soil. 



The juniper here presented departs widely from the method 

 of growth described above. It rises upward in a form beauti- 

 fully symmetrical, assuming the proportions of a shrub with 

 numerous branches, and root stocks ascending and adpressed to 



(175) 



