141 o The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



A shrub or small tree, occasionally attaining 30 ft. in height and 10 to 12 ft. 

 in girth. Branchlets angled, becoming pale brown and scaly in the third year. 

 Leaves all acicular, in alternate whorls of threes, spreading, linear, to f in. long, 

 -fa to t^ in. broad, gradually tapering from the middle to the acuminate cartilaginous 

 point, swollen and jointed at the slightly narrowed sessile base, entire in margin ; 

 upper surface with a narrow elevated green midrib, on each side of which is a white 

 stomatic furrow, bounded externally by a narrow green band ; lower surface green, 

 convex, with a projecting sharp keel. 



Flowers dioecious. Staminate flowers solitary in the axil of a leaf, two or three 

 in each whorl, sessile, ovoid, about in. long. Fruit ripening in the second year, 

 solitary in the axils, on short stalks about ^ in. long, globose, f to in. in diameter ; 

 shining reddish brown when ripe, with or without a partial glaucous bloom ; 

 composed of three or six scales, each indicated by a minute mucro, the apex of 

 the fruit having three radiating lines. Seeds normally three, radially disposed 

 in the centre of the fleshy resinous pulp, reddish brown, triquetrous-oblong, with 

 two sharp lateral edges ; the upper edge usually thin, rounded, broad and 

 emarginate, occasionally narrow and pointed ; with two resin-glands at the base 

 which occasionally mark the surface with depressions. 



Both /. Oxycedrus and J. communis are frequently attacked ' by the parasitic 

 Arceuthobium Oxycedri, Bieberstein, a plant allied to the mistletoe, which is 

 common in the Mediterranean region. 



This species is very variable in the wild state, differences occurring in the size 

 and shape of the fruit and of the leaves. It usually forms a compact shrub, with 

 ascending or spreading branches and branchlets ; but large trees occur on the 

 Riviera, which bear long pendulous branches, and are similar in habit to 

 J. Cedrus. 



Varieties 



The following varieties have been described : 



1. Var. viridis, Pospichal, Fl. Oest. Kilstenl. i 30 (1897). Fruit dull green when 

 ripe. Has only been seen on the north bank of the Canal di Leme, near Rovigno 

 in Istria. 



2. Var. umbilicata, Rikli, op. cit. 315 (1906). 



Juniperus macrocarpa, Tenore, Syll. Fl. Neap. 483 (1831) (not Sibthorp and Smith). 

 Juniperus umbilicata, Grenier et Godron, Fl. de France, iii. 158 (1855). 



Fruit when young, glaucous and covered with a bluish bloom ; when ripe, 

 larger than in the type, chestnut brown, very variable in shape, often umbilicate at 

 the base. This is considered by Rikli to be a variety of /. Oxycedrus ; but by 

 Ascherson and Graebner to be a variety of J. macrocarpa. It occurs in Italy, and 

 is perhaps a hybrid between the two species. 



1 ProC Ed. Henry in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xlvii. 260 (1900) mentions an instance in which a branch of J. communis, 

 attacked by this parasite, developed scale-like leaves, similar to those normally borne by/, phanicea. Cf. &\so iiid. 155 (1900), 

 where an instance is recorded of/, fhanicea being also attacked by Arceuthobium Oxycedri. 



