86 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



\' thick, bright cinnamon-red, divided by broad shallow fissures into wide flat irregularly 

 connected ridges separating on the surface into thin lustrous scales. Wood light, soft, 

 very close-grained, exceedingly durable, light red or brown, with thick nearly white sap- 

 wood; used for fencing and fuel. The fruit is gathered and eaten by the California Indians. 

 Distribution. Mountain slopes and high prairies of western Idaho and of eastern Wash- 

 ington to the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains; eastern and southern Oregon up 

 to altitudes of 4500; along the summits and upper slopes of the Sierra Nevada of Cali- 

 fornia, and southward to the San Bernardino Mountains, here abundant in Bear and 

 Holcomb valleys; attaining its greatest trunk diameter on the wind-swept peaks of the 

 California sierras, usually at altitudes between 6000 and 10,000 above the sea. 



8. Juniperus monosperma Sarg. Juniper. 



Leaves opposite or ternate, often slightly spreading at apex, acute or occasionally 

 acuminate, much thickened and rounded on the back, usually glandular, denticulately 

 fringed, gray-green, rather less than \' long, turning bright red-brown before falling; on 

 vigorous shoots and young plants ovate, acute, tipped with long rigid points, thin, con- 



Fig. 85 



spicuously glandular on the back, often \' long. Flowers: male with 8-10 stamens, their 

 broadly ovate, rounded or pointed connectives slightly erose on the margins: female with 

 spreading pointed scales. Fruit subglobose or short-oblong, \'-\' long, dark blue or per- 

 haps occasionally light chestnut-brown with a thick firm skin covered with a thin glau- 

 cous bloom, thin flesh, and 1 or rarely 2 seeds; seeds often protruding from the top of 

 the fruit, ovoid, often 4-angled, somewhat obtuse at apex, with a small hilum, and 

 2 cotyledons. 



A tree, occasionally 40-50 high, with a stout much-lobed and buttressed trunk some- 

 times 3 in diameter, short stout branches forming an open very irregular head, and slen- 

 der branchlets covered after the falling of the leaves with light red-brown bark spreading 

 freely into thin loose scales; more often a much branched shrub sometimes only a few feet 

 high. Bark ashy gray, divided into irregularly connected ridges, separating into long 

 narrow persistent shreddy scales. Wood heavy, slightly fragrant, light reddish brown, 

 with nearly white sap wood and eccentric layers of annual growth; largely used for fencing 

 and fuel. The fruit is ground into flour and baked by the Indians, who use the thin 

 etrips of fibrous bark in making saddles, breechcloths, and sleeping-mats. 



Distribution. Along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains from the valley of the 

 flatte River, Wyoming (near Alcova, Natrona County) and the divide between the 



