Illustrations of Conifers. 



JUNIPERUS. 



Evergreen shrubs or trees belonging to the division Cupressinese 

 of the order Coniferse. Bark usually thin and scaling in longitu- 

 dinal strips. Leaves on young plants always spreading and 

 acicular ; on adult plants either acicular or appressed and scale-like. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious. Staminate flowers composed 

 of numerous stamens on a central axis, with ovate or peltate 

 scale-like connectives, each bearing 2 to 6 globose pollen-sacs. Pis- 

 tillate flowers surrounded at the base by minute scale-like bracts, 

 which persist unchanged under the fruit ; composed of three to 

 eight opposite or ternate pointed scales, bearing either at their 

 base or alternate with them one to two ovules. 



Fruit a succulent berry-like indehiscent strobile, composed of 

 three to eight fleshy scales united together, covered by a mem- 

 branous epidermis ; ripening in the first, second, or rarely in the 

 third year. Seeds variable in number (one to twelve) and in 

 shape ; usually free, but in one species coalesced. 



The genus comprises about thirty-five species, distributed over 

 the northern hemisphere from the Arctic circle to Mexico and the 

 West Indies, Azores and Canary Islands, Northern Africa, Abys- 

 sinia, and the mountains of East Tropical Africa, Himalayas, China 

 and Formosa. 



