JUNIPER. 102 



Juniper (Juniperus communis). 



Hitherto we have been considering plants that have stigmas 

 and ovaries, whether they had or had not a calyx or a corolla ; 

 but we must now introduce our patient readers to a cohort of 

 plants which contrive to make an important figure in the world 

 without either calyx, corolla, stigma, or ovary. These plants 

 are generally forest trees, most important as timber producers, 

 but their flowers consist solely of anthers and open carpels 

 containing the ovules, which are fertilized by actual contact with 

 the pollen-grains, instead of through the medium of a stigma and 

 style which have to be pierced by the pollen-tube. This cohort 

 contains the pines and firs ; also the Juniper and the Yew. 



Juniper is a dark foliaged evergreen shrub or small tree, 

 usually four or five feet in height, but occasionally attaining a 

 stature of ten, fifteen, or even twenty feet. It occurs on heaths 

 and open hillsides, sometimes in great profusion, as on parts of 

 the North Downs in Surrey and Kent. Its leaves are very 

 narrow, pointed, and borne in threes. Their midribs and 

 margins are thicker than the intermediate portions, and they 

 have a pungent resinous odour. Each anther is borne on a 

 scale, a number of which are formed into a cone, and is four- 

 celled. The female flower consists of five or six scales united 

 at their bases to form a kind of involucre, within which are three 

 naked ovules. The pale yellow pollen is blown into this by 

 the wind, and falls directly upon the ovules. Having become 

 fertile the seeds mature, and the scales develop into a fleshy 

 cone, outwardly resembling a berry, of a blue-black hue with a 

 glaucous bloom upon it. The pollen is shed in May and June, 

 but the fruit is not ripe until the following spring. This is the 

 only British species ; its essential oil has long been used as a 

 diuretic and flavouring substance, notably for giving its 

 distinctive flavour to Gin, whose name is derived from 

 Genevrier, the French for Juniper. 



