TREES GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 297 



Pinus pungens has a rather limited range. Its cones are very 

 abundant and beautiful. After fertilization has taken place, 

 and their scales have closed to protect the young and forming 

 seeds, it is astonishing how hard and heavy they are found to 

 be when taken in the hand. Almost they appear like bits of clay. 

 Light brown and coarsely grained wood is produced by the 

 tree, and it is soft and brittle. In Pennsylvania it is largely 

 made into charcoal. 



COMMON JUNIPER. GROUND CEDAR. (Plate CLXIII.) 



Juniper us communis. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



>a Scotia southward April, May. 

 and westward. Fruit: Oct. 



Pine. Low, broad, spreading. 20-25 feet. Nova Scotia southward April, May. 



Frv 



Bark: reddish brown and separating into thin, papery sheets. Leaves : sim- 

 ple ; linear-lanceolate or awl-shaped ; spreading and growing in whorles of 

 three up and down the slender branchlets ; rigid; sharply pointed; channelled; 

 dark yellow-green and glaucous on the upper side; astringent. Berries : large ; 

 sessile ; bluish grey ; glaucous ; fragrant when dried ; sweet. 



By Professor Sargent it is said that Juniperus communis is 

 the most widely distributed tree of the northern hemisphere 

 It occurs in Europe and Asia also. In India its twigs are 

 burned as incense, and its berry-like cones are employed in the 

 practice of medicine. In this country the latter are considera- 

 bly used to flavour gin, and they take in New England fully 

 three years in which to mature. The tree is erect with an irregu- 

 larly shaped head, and it is not infrequently found growing 

 by the side of Juniperus Virginiana. Juniperus nana, the low 

 juniper, thrives in pastures and on dry hillsides as a shrub, 

 when its branches grow low, often closely to the ground. 



" The birch-tree swung her fragrant hair, 



The bramble cast her berry, 

 The gin within the juniper 



Began to make him merry. 

 The poplars, in long order due, 



With cypress promenaded, 

 The shock-head willows two and two 



By rivers gallopaded." Tennyson. 



