172 JUNIPERUS COMMUNIS. 



like those of the common form but smaller, more crowded, almost 

 imbricated (in British gardens), white above, distinctly keeled beneath. 



J. comnmnis hemisphrerica, Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 479. Beissner, 



Xadelholzk. 137. J. nana hemisphferica, Carriere, Traite Conif. ed II. 16. 



J. hemisphferica, Presl. Delic. Prag. 142. Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 12. Gordon, 

 Pinet. ed. II. 134. J. echinoformis, Hort. 



var. nana. 



A dwarf decumbent or prostrate shrub with short thickish branches 

 much ramified. Branchlets short. Leaves smaller than in the 

 common form, close-set, incurved, almost imbricated. Fruits smaller 

 but in other respects conforming to the type. 



J. communis nana, London, Arb. et Frut. Brit. IV. 2489, with tig. J. 

 nana, Wildenow, Sp. Plant IV. 854. Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 13. Carriere, 

 Traite Conif. ed. II. 14. Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 136. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 132. 

 J. communis alpina, Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 480. 



var. oblonga. 



A large bush or low tree with somewhat slender, spreading or 

 sub-pendulous branches and with angular, slender, elongated branchlets. 

 Leaves longer and more spreading than in the common form, white 

 above and bright green beneath. Fruits elliptic-oblong, not spherical. 



J. communis oblonga, London, Arb. et Frut. Brit. IV. 2489. Parlatore, D. C. 

 Prodr. XVI. 479. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 137. ' J. oblonga, Bieberstein, Fl. 

 taurico - cauc. II. 426. Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 19. Gordon, Pinet. ed. 

 II. 137 (oblongata). J. communis caucasica, Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 16. 



The most striking fact respecting the common Juniper is the 

 enormous area over which it is spread. On the eastern continent 

 it is distributed over the whole of Europe and Asia north of and 

 including the series of great mountain chains extending eastwards 

 from Spain to China, and restricted northwards only by the limits 

 imposed by climate on arborescent vegetation, and excluding the 

 steppe and desert regions of south-east Europe and Central Asia. 

 On the western continent its range northwards is only checked by 

 the same cause as in the eastern, whilst southwards it spreads on 

 the Atlantic side to the highlands of Pennsylvania ; in the central 

 region to northern Nebraska and along the Eocky Mountains to 

 Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas ; and on the Pacific side 

 from Alaska to northern California.* 



Juniperus communis varies exceedingly in habit according to the latitude 

 and vertical elevation at which it is found ; in valleys and lowlands it 

 attains the dimensions of a tree 20 25 or more feet high ; on 

 mountain slopes and on exposed hill-sides it is mostly a dense shrub 

 3 5 feet high ; and at the highest elevations and in the highest 

 latitudes in which it can live it is a prostrate bush, rising but a 

 few inches above the ground. The varieties described above are all 

 geographical deviations from the ordinary type with the exception of 

 aureo-variegata, which is of garden origin. From a horticultural stand- 

 point they are superior to the common form as decorative plants, and 

 among the most useful of their kind, especially fastis/iota, the well-known 



* Sargent, Silva of North America, X. 77. 



