100 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



fixe and form change to conform to circumstances. It is often small and ragged. Its 

 lead-colored bark is apt to attract attention on account of its woeful appearance, 

 hanging in strings and tatters which persistently cling to the trunk in spite of whip- 

 ping winds. When the tree is cut for fuel, or for any other purpose, the ragged bark 

 is occasionally pulled off and is tied in bales or bundles to be sold for kindling. When 

 the mountain juniper is taken from its native wilds and planted where environments 

 are different, it sometimes assumes fantastic forms. It has been planted for orna- 

 ment on the low, flat coast in the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico, and though it lives 

 and grows, it often takes on a peculiar appearance. The trunks resemble twisted 

 and interwoven bundles of lead-colored vines, buttressed, fluted, and gnarled. The 

 branches lose their upright position, and hang in careless abandon, with drooping 

 festoons. In winter the wind whips most of the foliage from them. The leaves 

 become brittle and may be easily brushed from the twigs by a stroke of the hand. 

 Some of the planted trees have trunks so deeply creased as to be divided in twq 

 separate stems. This very nearly happens with some of the wild trees among the 

 western mountains. The sapwood of mountain juniper is very thin. The average 

 tree cannot be profitably cut into lumber of the usual dimensions because of the odd- 

 shaped and irregular trunk. It lends itself more economically to the manufacture 

 of articles made up of small pieces. Some of the wood is extremely beautiful, having 

 the color and figure of French walnut; but there is great difference in the figure and 

 color, and the wood of one tree is not a sure guide to what another may be. Boards 

 a foot wide, or even less, may show several figures and colors. Some pieces suggest 

 variegated marble; others are like plain red cedar; some are light red in color, others 

 have a tinge of blue. It varies greatly in hardness, even in the same tree. Part of 

 it may be soft and brittle enough for lead pencils; another part may be hard and 

 tough. Clothes chests have been made of it, of most peculiar appearance resembl- 

 ing crazy quilts of subdued colors. Sometimes the heartwood and the sapwood are 

 inextricably mixed, both being found in all parts of the trunk from the heart out. On 

 the whole, the tree can never have much importance as a source of lumber, but it is 

 a most interesting member of the cedar group. 



