JUNIPERUS EXCELSA. 175 



vertical limit reduced to a small confused bush scarcely knee high. 

 Bark of trunk fibrous, peeling off in longitudinal shreds, that of the 

 branches pale brown and smooth. Primary branches spreading or 

 ascending; secondary branches short, much ramified, and terminating in 

 numerous slender leafy branchlets pinnately divided. Leaves dimorphic ; 

 on the axial shoots in whorls of three, ovate-triangular, acute, adiiate 

 at the base, free at the apex, with a small oblong gland on the 

 dorsal, and- a white stomatiferous band on the ventral side, becoming 

 effete the third or fourth year ; on the younger branchlets in decussate 

 pairs, scale-like, imbricated, concrescent or closely appressed, dull, dark 

 green, often with a grey margin. Staminate flowers very numerous, 

 terminal on short branchlets of the preceding year, oval, pale yellow, 

 consisting of nine anther lobes. Fruits spherical, somewhat larger than 

 a large pea, mostly in clusters of five nine or more, dark glaucous 

 purple composed' of six concrescent scales each with a small transverse 

 umbo. 



Juniperus excelsa, Bieberstein, Fl tatirico-caucas. II. 425 (1808). London, Arb. 

 et Frnt. Brit IV 2503 (in part). Endlicher, Synops. Conif 25. Carriere, Traite 

 Conif. ed. II. 36. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 484 Brandis, Forest Fl N.W. 

 India, 538.* Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 143. Boissier, Fl. orient. V. 708. Aitchison 

 in Journ. Linn. Soc. XVIII. 97. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 112. Masters in Journ. 

 R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 212. 



J. phoenicea, Pallas, Fl. ross. I. 16, t. 7 (not Limifeus). 



J. religiosa, Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 39 ; and Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 148 

 (not Royle). 



Eng. Greek Juniper, TallJuniper. Fr. Genevrier d'orient. Genii. Hohe Sadebaum. 

 Ital. Ginepro greco. 



var. stricta. 



Differs from the common form in having a more tapering outline and 

 a more glaucous foliage, imparting to the plant a greyish white aspect 

 when viewed from a distance. It is of garden origin. 

 J. excelsa stricta, Hort. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 112. 



The geographical range of Juniperus excelsa is very extensive, 

 comparable in this respect with J. virginiana of which it is the 

 representative in the eastern hemisphere. But whilst J. virginiana 

 attains its greatest development in the low-lying, swampy lands of the 

 south-eastern States of North America, J. excelsa is for the most part 

 an alpine tree that attains its greatest size on mountain slopes 

 3,000 5,000 feet above sea-level. Its western limit is in the islands 

 of the Greek Archipelago, whence it spreads eastwards through Asia 

 Minor, Syria, Persia and the Himalaya as far as Nepal, inhabiting 

 well-nigh all the high mountain chains between lat. 30 and 45 N. 

 and long. 25 and 80 E. On the Cilician Taurus it forms forests 

 many miles in extent along the lower fringe of the Cedar belt in 

 which trees 70 90 feet high are not infrequentf Towards its 

 eastern limit its vertical range is greater and much higher; on the 

 mountains skirting the Kuram valley in Afghanistan it forms fully 



* Referred to Boissier's Juniperus macropoda by Sir. J. D. Hooker in Flora of British 

 India, V. 647. 



f Walter Siehe in Gartenflora, 1897, p. 208, with fig. 



