EVERGREENS OF COLORADO 41 



4. THE ONE-SEEDED RED CEDAR. 

 Juniper us monosperma Sarg. 



This red cedar has a more southern range than the Rocky Mountain 

 red cedar, from which it is often with difficulty distinguished. In Colo- 

 rado it occupies the dry foothills and mesas in the southern and western 

 portions of the State, where it occasionally forms the principal tree of the 

 genus. In stature it equals the following species but commonly divides 

 at or near the ground into several trunks of about equal size. The 

 smaller, scale-like leaves are usually less than one-eighth inch in length, 

 while those on vigorous shoots are sometimes one-half inch long. They 

 are thickened on the back, and the tips usually project slightly in the 

 form of a small pointed tooth, a character which helps to distinguish this 

 species. The foliage is yellowish green in color. 



The bark on old trunks remains rather thin, but divides into flat, 

 connected ridges which are broken into long shreds of a greyish color. 

 The wood is firm, heavy, with nearly white sapwood and brownish colored 

 heartwood, in which it differs from that of the following species which 

 possesses reddish heartwood. 



The fruit of the one-seeded red cedar is commonly less than one- 

 fourth inch in diameter, and in color is reddish brown or copper color, 

 covered with a bluish bloom. The seeds are usually one or sometimes two 

 in number, and are covered with a rather thin brittle shell. They are 

 only about one-half as large as those of the Utah Juniper. 



This tree has been extensively used for fencing, wherever it occurs, 

 while the thin, shreddy bark has furnished the Indians with a coarse 

 textile material for the making of rough garments and sleeping mats. 



5. ROCKY MOUNTAIN RED CEDAR. 

 Juniperus Scopulorum Sarg. 



This is the common red cedar of the Rocky Mountains, with a range 

 from Alberta and British Columbia to Arizona and Texas. In Colorado, 

 it is found principally along the eastern slopes of the Continental Divide, 

 from the easternmost ranges of foothills to elevations of 8,500 feet. It 

 is one of the tallest of our red cedars in this state, although it rarely 

 exceeds a height of thirty to forty feet. 



Young trees usually grow in a pyramidal form, which in old speci- 

 mens, may widen to a rounded or spreading crown of irregularly open 

 character. It is to be found growing in gulches and canyons, upon the 

 southern exposures, where it endures well the drying effects of the direct 

 sunlight, upon the drier foothill slopes, or it may be seen perched upon 

 the bluffs, along ravines, or clinging to exposed rocky points where most 

 trees are unable to exist. It seems to thrive well either in moist and 

 fertile soils, in apparently barren adobe, or the limestone soils of certain 

 foothill sections, where it is a common accompaniment of the pinyon pine. 

 The trunk of this cedar is commonly single, but in dry situations and in 



