204 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



May 



ally durable in contact with the soil 

 and exposed to the weather, posts and 

 fence .rails having been known to 

 last forty to sixty or more years. With 

 one exception, the western junipers 

 have a light brown heartwood which 

 is much less durable in an unprotected 

 state than the redwood of the eastern 

 species. Our eastern redwooded juni- 

 pers are well known both in this coun- 

 try and abroad through their exten- 

 sive use for pencil wood, while on ac- 

 count of their extreme lasting quali- 

 ties, the timber is greatly prized also 



Fig. 2. Fruiting Branch of 

 Pinchoti. 



for posts and telephone poles. The 

 usefulness of the western junipers is 

 practically unknown, except locally. 

 In very many localities their abundant 

 growth is the mainstay of the rancher 

 both for fuel and for fencing; and in 

 not a few instances the fuel of small 

 foothill towns is derived entirely from 

 near-by juniper. As yet little if any 

 attention is paid, however, to preserv- 

 ing for the future the productiveness 

 of these most important stretches of 

 woodland. A point of interest in this 



connection is that with the nearly ex- 

 hausted supply of eastern pencil wood, 

 makers .are earnestly ' seeking substi- 

 tutes, for which at least one of the 

 western junipers is likely to serve. 



The following is a description of a 

 newly discovered species of juniper: 



Jnnipenis f>inchoti sp. nov. As 

 now known, a tree ten to twenty feet 

 in height with numerous stems, three 

 to five inches in diameter, forming 

 more or less dense clumps (fig. i). 

 The thinnish bark of the trunk is 

 broken longitudinally into narrow, 

 anastomosing scales, which are long 

 persistent. Exteriorly the bark is 

 ashy-gray and a dull cinnamon brown 

 on the inner surface. The bark of 

 the small branches is often divided 

 transversely into long narrow scales: 

 Branchlets somewhat rigid in appear- 

 ance (fig. 2) ; those of pistillate trees 

 slender to moderately stout on stami- 

 nate individuals. Leaves yellowish green 

 usually in threes, but often in twos; 

 closely appressed, acute, thickened, 

 keeled and commonly marked with a 

 depression or glandular pit on the 

 back ; about one-tenth of an inch 

 long. Leaves of the --oung shoots 

 linear-lanceolate, very sharp-pointed, 

 spreading at the tips, one-fourth to 

 one-half an inch long, and with a con- 

 spicuous resinous gland on the back 

 (Fig. 3). Flowers and fruiting habit 

 insufficiently known at present ; pro- 

 bably a species which matures its 

 fruit the second year after flowering. 

 Mature fruit one-fourth to three- 

 eights of an inch in diameter, sub- 

 globose to slightly oblong, distinctly 

 reddish or copper-brown, with very 

 little or no bloom. Fruit with thick, 

 dry, sweetish flesh and one or two 

 seeds, which are indistinctly ridged, 

 broadly ovate, pointed, lustrous chest- 

 nut brown at the apex (hilum very 

 large and bilobed). The wood (not 

 yet technically studied) has distinct 

 narrow rings. Sapwood nearly white 

 and heartwood light brown with a 

 pale reddish tinge ; only moderately 

 durable in contact with soil. 



The range of this juniper is not 



