26 Illustrations of Conifers. 



JUNIPERUS SABIN-A (Linnceus) Savin. 



Sp. PI. 1039 (1768). 



Veitch's Man. Conif. ed. 2, p. 189 (1900). 



Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. VI. p. 1448 (1912). 



A shrub attaining about 15 feet in height, the foliage emitting a 

 disagreeable odour when rubbed, and having an acid taste. Ultimate 

 branchlets very slender, quadrangular, clothed with four ranks of 

 scale-like leaves in opposite pairs which are imbricated, appressed, 

 ovate, acute or blunt at the apex, about ^ inch long, entire in 

 margin, rounded on the back which usually bears a resin gland ; 

 leaves on older branchlets more elongated, about $ inch long, acu- 

 minate, becoming brown and withered in the third and fourth year. 

 Juvenile foliage appearing on young plants and on isolated branches 

 of adult shrubs ; acicular, slightly spreading, in opposite pairs, about 

 ^ inch long, acuminate at the apex ; upper surface glaucous, with a 

 prominent midrib ; lower surface green, convex, with a depressed 

 gland. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious. Fruit ripening in the autumn 

 of the first year or in the following spring, borne on the ends of 

 short scaly recurved branchlets ; irregularly globose or ovoid, about 

 I inch in diameter, brownish blue, glaucous, compressed, composed 

 of four to six mucronate scales. Seeds one to three, ovoid, trique- 

 trous, furrowed. 



In a wild state Jimipents Sabina grows usually on limestone, 

 but is occasionally seen on other formations. It has a wide distri- 

 bution occurring in Central and Southern Europe, the Caucasus and 

 North America. It is usually found in extensive thickets on dry 

 sunny mountain slopes. 



The Savin has been known in English cultivation since 1548 

 and is now common in gardens. The young shoots are used in 

 medicine and yield a volatile oil which possesses extremely active 

 properties. 



