86 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



species of the spruce an extract is taken, which is 

 used in flavouring a very wholesome beer. 



No useful extract is, so far as we know, taken 

 from the yew, the cypress, or the arbor vitae. The 

 first of these is usually reckoned a poisonous tree, 

 destructive to some animals, though not to others. 



From the junipers are derived very powerful ingre- 

 dients. The spirit (essential oil) of the common juni- 

 per is employed in medicine; and also in giving to 

 ardent spirits that peculiar flavour which distinguishes 

 the Geneva, or gin of Holland. The Dutch are under- 

 stood to distil the juniper berries along with the other 

 ingredients, by which means the more caustic particles 

 of the oil are evaporated, and the liquor rendered less 

 deleterious ; while the British distillers not only 

 use the oil of juniper in its most caustic state, but 

 often substitute for it the more pernicious oil of tur- 

 pentine, on account of its greater cheapness. The 

 quantity of juniper berries annually imported into 

 the United Kingdom is about 800 tons. 



Old junipers exude a resin called Guin Sandrach, 

 which, under the name of pounce, is employed to pre- 

 vent the ink from spreading upon parchment and 

 improperly-sized writing paper. A decoction of the 

 berries of the common juniper yields a considerable 

 quantity of sugar. 



From one species, Lycian Cedar (Juniperus Lycia) 

 a native of France, the Levant, and Siberia, (a shrub 

 of considerable size,) there is obtained the resin called 

 Olibanum, which was much used by the ancients, and 

 is still used by the Roman Catholics in their incense 

 offerings. It has a bitter taste, and a strong smell; 

 and, when it is burned, the fumes of it diffuse very 

 considerable fragrance. 



