338 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



before germinating, and if it has been gathered in places 

 where male-flowering trees are wanting, it does not come up 

 at all. It is best to pack the seed at once in earth and sow 

 it in rills with about a one inch covering of good mould in 

 the second autumn or spring, and then prick out the seed- 

 lings in the first or second year into the nursery-bed, both 

 operations taking place under shade and shelter. Trans- 

 plants from nursery-beds can be easily put out up to three 

 feet in height, planting taking place with balls of earth on 

 account of the tap-root. 



Juniper is a shrub also indigenous throughout Europe and 

 northern Asia, which attains a height of twenty feet, is 

 dicecious like the yew, and has false berries ripening only in 

 the autumn of the second year after flowering, when they 

 are round, blackish, and with a prunose bloom on them. 

 It naturally, like the yew, belongs to the species capable of 

 bearing a considerable degree of shade ; but it is sensitive to 

 changes in respect to the enjoyment of light, and when once 

 accustomed to light and air, grows w r ell without shade or 

 shelter. Its natural home is on plains w r ith sandy soil, 

 having a tendency to growth of heather, where it often 

 grows spontaneously as underwood below pine ; but its 

 appearance is an ominous sign of deterioration of soil 

 having already begun. Where, however, a self-sown crop of 

 juniper is to be met with, it indicates the better classes of 

 soil, and generally points to depth, freshness, and a certain 

 amount of loam either in the soil or the subsoil. It belongs 

 to the deep-rooting species of shrubs. In Britain its culti- 

 vation can never be so remunerative as in Holland, where 

 the berries are required in large quantities for the hundreds 

 of gin-distilleries around Schiedam, and in general its ap- 

 pearance with us is interesting chiefly as indicating soils that 

 are naturally suited for yielding good returns under forest. In 

 parks and gardens it can, like the yew, be trimmed to form 



