1406 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



bushes of juniper mixed with yew, holly, and thorn appear, but rarely exceed 8 to 

 10 ft. in height, and natural reproduction is in my own experience seldom found. 

 Mr. Dykes informs us that many junipers grow on Shackleford Heath, and on the 

 south side of the Hog's Back near Puttenham. 



In a valley called Juniper Valley, about three miles east from Godalming, 

 formerly the property of Col. H. H. Godwin-Austen, the juniper attains a greater 

 size than I have seen it anywhere else in a state of nature in Great Britain. Col. 

 Godwin-Austen tells me that a map in his possession shows the land to have been 

 a sheep walk in 1733. The soil is a deep sand on the lower greensand formation, 

 at an elevation of 350 ft., and is overgrown with rank ling and bracken. The trees 

 are mostly branched near the ground, and attain 1 5 to 30 ft. in height, some having 

 a fastigiate habit like the Irish juniper. They are mostly damaged and broken by 

 heavy snow ; and I could find no young seedlings. 



H. Speight, Romantic Richmondshire, 239 (1897), states that "Down to the 

 beginning of the last century there were many hundred acres of juniper and briar 

 in the townships of Reeth, Helaugh, and Muker. The chips at one time were 

 extensively used for fumigating, and during seasons of plague and sickness no 

 house was found without them. The berries were used as a spice. The plant 

 grows best on open elevated limestone country, and flourished amazingly in upper 

 Swaledale. There are acres of it about Harkeside, above Marden Castle, and 

 elsewhere. In Wensleydale it occurs but sparingly." 



At Merton, Norfolk, there is a remarkable plantation of juniper which covers 

 14J acres, and consists of numerous shrubs very variable in appearance, and 

 averaging about 20 ft. high. The smallest are about 7 ft. high, while the majority 

 range from 15 to 20 ft.; the tallest being 25 ft. This was planted about 1845. 

 In a neighbouring plantation there is a fine specimen 35 ft. high. 



The largest recorded juniper in England is one which grew at Farnham Castle, 

 Surrey, and was said by Loudon to be of the Swedish variety, and 40 ft. high, but on 

 a recent visit to Farnham I could find no trace of this tree. Loudon " figures a tree 

 growing in a birch wood near Farningham which was 20 ft. high and 4 ft. in girth in 

 1838 ; but of this also I can find no trace. 



At Langley Park, Norfolk, I measured a'very fine bush about 20 ft. high, and 

 43 paces round the branches ; and at Westonbirt there is the finest specimen 

 I know of the fastigiate form, measuring 26 ft. high in 1909. 



In Scotland the juniper is less common in a wild state than formerly, but in 

 certain districts is still abundant. Mr. T. Cathie, forester at Aberuchill, Comrie, 

 Perthshire, informs me that a tree no less than 40 ft. high was blown down near 

 there in 1904, but that the tallest now living were only 17 ft. high. 



The finest I have seen wild in Scotland are in the forest of Guisachan, near 

 the house of the forester Donald Kennedy, who told me that thirty years ago some 

 of the thickets of juniper were so dense that he could not pass through them. 

 Now, however, many are broken down by the snow, and injured or killed by the 

 stags cleaning their horns on them ; and the tallest that I saw, on a grassy mound, 



1 Art. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2492 (1838). 



