10 Illustration!* of Conifers. 



JUNIPERUS COMMUNIS (Linnmis). Common Juniper. 



Sp. PL p. 1040 (1753). 



Veiteh't Man. Conif. ed. 2, p. 170 (1900). 



Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. VI. p. 1400 (1912). 



A shrub or small tree, rarely attaining a height of 40 feet. Bark 

 reddish-brown, scaling off in papery shreds. Young branchlets slender, 

 triquetrous, with three ridges between the whorls of leaves. Buds 

 about I inch long, with a few loose ovate acuminate scales. Leaves 

 all acicular, persistent for three years, sessile, spreading, variable 

 in length, to f inch long, linear-subulate, gradually tapering from 

 near the swollen base to the slender spine-like apex ; upper surface 

 concave with usually a single continuous broad white band of sto- 

 mata ; lower surface bluntly keeled. 



Flowers dioecious, rarely monoecious. Staminate flowers solitary, 

 cylindrical, I inch long, yellow ; stamens in five or six whorls. 

 Pistillate flowers solitary, green, T y 2 inch long. Fruit ripening in 

 the second or third year, green when young, bluish or black when 

 ripe, slightly glaucous, globose or slightly longer than broad, inch 

 in diameter. Seeds two or three, elongated ovoid, triquetrous, with 

 depressions on the sides for resin-glands. 



Numerous varieties, based on the length and breadth of the 

 leaves and the size and shape of the fruit, have been described. 



Jnmperus communis is more widely distributed than any other 

 tree or shrub. It is common throughout Northern and Central 

 Europe, and also occurs in the mountains of the countries border- 

 ing on the Mediterranean. It is also found in Asia Minor, the 

 Caucasus, Persia, Afghanistan, the Western Himalayas, the United 

 States and Canada. On many chalk hills in the south of England 

 the Juniper (which is one of our three indigenous conifers) is a 

 conspicuous feature of the vegetation, but it never attains the 

 size of a timber tree in Great Britain. 



The berries were at one time employed for medicinal purposes 

 and they are still used for flavouring gin. An essential oil is 

 also distilled from them. 



The illustration represents a Bayfordbury specimen. 



