42 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



As an ornamental tree it has long been popular in both Europe and 

 America, though generally thriving better in Europe than in the 

 Atlantic states. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. The resin of this wood is a powerful 

 diuretic. This property is so active that workmen in the saw-mills 

 where this lumber is being sawn are so affected, through inhalation, 

 that it becomes necessary to change occasionally to other wood. 

 GENUS JUNIPERUS, LINNAEUS. 



Leaves evergreen, opposite or in whorls of three, rigid and of two forms, one 

 awl-shaped and the other scale like, often both found on the same bush or tree. 

 Flowers dioecious, rarely monoecious, in very small catkins. Sterile catkins ovate, 

 with shield-shaped scales, each bearing at its base 3-7 anther cells. Fertile catkins 

 ovoid or globose, with few (3-5) fleshy, concave, united scales, each bearing one 

 ovule, and these together becoming in Fruit a sort of berry, but in reality an 

 altered cone, scaly-bracted underneath, blackish or bluish in color, furnished 

 with a lighter-colored bloom, and containing from i-3 bony, wingless seeds; 

 cotyledons two. 



(Juniperus is the classical Latin name of the Juniper.) 



242. JUNIPERUS PACHYPHLOEA, TORR. 



ALLIGATOR JUNIPER. THICK-BARK JUNIPER. CHECKER-BARK JUNIPER. 



Ger., Diokborke Wachholder ; Fr., Genevrier d ecorse epais ; Sp., 



Enebro de corteza espesa. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : Leaves opposite, scarcely in. long, closely appressed. 

 apiculate, slightly denticulate, bluish green and conspicuously white-glandular 

 on the back; leaves on vigorous shoots linear-lanceolate and with longer points; 

 branchlets slender. Flowers open in February or March at the tips of branchlets,' 

 the staminate in great abundance, oblong, yellow, about % in long, with 10 or 

 12 anther scales; pistillate flowers with more pointed and spreading scales. 

 'Fruit matures in the autumn of the second season, subglobose, about in. in 

 diameter, often tuberculate, marked with tips of flower scales, bluish the first 

 season and finally brownish, covered with glaucous bloom; seeds four in number, 

 flattened ovoid, pointed, gibbous and ridged on back, thick- walled with large 

 hilums and embryo with two cotyledons. 



The specific name, pachyphlocea, is from Greek roots meaning thick bark. 



This curious and largest representative of the junipers attains the 

 height of 50 or 60 ft. (18 m.) with trunk 5 or 6 ft. (1.80 m.) in 

 diameter, vested in a strikingly characteristic grayish bark. This is 

 especially curious for a juniper, being more like the barks of certain 

 oaks than of any of the junipers. It is fissured into thick rectangular 

 plates which give an appearance so similar to that of the skin of an 

 alligator, that the name " Alligator " Juniper is aptly applied to it. 



The trunk divides usually within 5 or 10 ft. from the ground into a 

 few large branches and a broad rounded top is formed with foliage of 

 a strikingly grayish green color owing to the conspicuous white gland 

 which dots the center of each leaf. 



HABITAT, The mountains of southwestern Texas and westward on 



