306 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



all round the branches, but spreading in one plane in two opposite 

 rows, convex and shining on the upper side. Catkins very small, 

 in the axils of the leaves. Fruits small, but conspicuous by their 

 bright, pinkish red, juicy cups. 



Rocks and limestone cliffs and thickets in the plains and moun- 

 tain region. April, May. 



Fruit in August and September. In Switzerland spread over all 

 the geological subsoils in coniferous and ordinary forests ; in the 

 hills and sub-Alps up to 1400 m. (Schinz) in the Jura and valley 

 of the Rhone and in Tessin. 



Distribution. Central Europe, mountains of Southern Europe, 

 extending northward to Scandinavia and eastward to the Caucasus 

 and mountains of Central and Northern Asia ; Algeria. 



Probably native in England on chalk and limestone. In Kingley 

 Vale, near Chichester, there is perhaps one of the finest examples 

 in Europe of a nearly pure Yew- wood. 1 



JUNIPERUS L. Juniper. 



Shrubs with glaucous, subulate, stiff and pointed or scale-like 

 leaves. Cone berry-like, small, composed of fleshy scales, blue 

 when ripe (in the second year). Ovules i or 2 under each scale, 

 erect. 



About 30 species spread over the northern hemisphere. 



Juniperus communis L. 



A much-branched, evergreen shrub, often procumbent, but 

 usually ascending, 2-4 feet high. Leaves in whorls of 3, linear, 

 acicular, 10-15 mm. long, ending in a prickly point, green above, 

 glaucous beneath. Catkins very minute. Berries globular, purplish 

 blue, as large as Bilberries when ripe (the second year). 



Dry hillsides and mountain slopes up to the Alpine region. 

 April, May. 



Distribution. Europe, Western and Northern Asia, N. Africa 

 and N. America. British. 



It passes insensibly into the variety montana Aiton (/. nana 

 Willd.), which is always procumbent, with shorter imbricate leaves 

 (4-8 mm.) and larger berries. 



The variety is widely spread in the Alps from 5500-8200 feet, 

 and very occasionally as high as 11,500 feet in Switzerland, which 

 gives it the distinction of being the highest woody plant in Europe. 

 Vaccari 2 actually records it from 3500 m. (11,700 feet) on Monte 

 Rosa. It flowers in June and July. 



Distribution. Alps, Carpathians, Jura, Auvergne, Pyrenees, 



1 A. G. Tansley in The New Phytologist, vol. x (1911), p. 288. 



2 Prof. Lino Vaccari, La Flora Nivale del Monte Rosa (1911), p. 27. 



