JUNIPER. 55 



shops, well known for its stimulant and emmenagogue properties. 

 J. Barbadiensis and J. Bermudiana are moderately large trees, 

 yielding the timber known by the name of Bermudas' Cedar. J. 

 Virginiana, a native of Jamaica and North America, also affords a 

 timber valued for cabinet-work, as its odour is obnoxious to most 

 insects. The gum-resin, called olibanum, famous for its employ- 

 ment as incense in religious worship, has been generally consi- 

 dered the produce of Juniper us Lycia ; some modern authorities, 

 however, assert that it is not obtained from this plant, but from the 

 Boswellia serrata, or, with Lamarck, from a species of Amyris. 



Qualities and general Uses. — Juniper is valuable for many 

 of its economical uses. In shrubberies it is often planted to group 

 with cypresses, American cedars, &c. It is easily transplanted, 

 and bears cropping. Grass will not grow beneath it, but it is said 

 that the avena pratensis will destroy it ! Thrushss, grouse, and 

 other birds feed upon the fruit, and several insects are supported 

 by the foliage. The young shoots are eaten by horses, sheep, and 

 goats. The wood is hard, and very durable,* and is used for 

 making cups, cabinets, &c, and also for marquetry and veneering ; 

 it affords excellent charcoal, which is so tenacious of heat,f that 

 the old chemists asserted that live embers had been found in the 

 ashes after having been covered for twelve months. Ropes may 

 be made of the bark. A gum -resin exudes spontaneously from the 

 old stems, which is called Sandarach, J and in its powdered form is 

 known under the name of pounce, which is used to give consist- 

 ence to paper, and to prevent the ink from sinking in parts which 

 have been erased. Dissolved in spirits of wine, sandarach also 

 affords a brilliant varnish, which is much employed in the Arts. 



* " Beams of Juniper-wood were used in building the Temple of 

 Diana, at Saguntum."— Rati Hist. 1412. Probaby this wood was the 

 produce of the J. Oxycedrus, or of some species of Thuja. The timber of 

 the tree that produces Sandarach, is considered by the Turks inde- 

 structible, and is employed by them for the ceilings and floors of their 

 mosques. 



f There is an allusion to thi3 in Psalm cxx, v. 4. 



X This substance is chiefly procured from the plants of warm climates ; 

 a finer sort is obtained by incisions in the trunk of /. Oxycedrus, and, 

 probably, from other species of Juniper. Desfontaines (Fl. Atlas ii. 

 p. 333) states, the Sandarach generally met with in commerce is the pro- 

 duce of the Thuja articulata. It is chiefly brought from Morocco, and 

 other parts of North Africa. 



