246 



TEEES IN WINTER 



RED CEDAR 

 Savin, Cedar, Red Juniper. 



Juniperus virginiana L. 



HABIT — A, medium sized tree, 25-40 ft. in height with trunk diameter 

 of 8-20 inches, much larger in the southern states; trunk more or less 

 ridg-ed and buttressed at base, with slender branches horizontal below 

 erect above, forming- in young trees a narrow, conical head, becoming 

 in old age wider, spreading, ovate, round-topped, or on bleak situations 

 especially nearthe sea shore more or less irregularly distorted. 



BARK — Light reddish-brown separating off in long narrow shreddy 

 strips more or less fringed at the edges, frequently somewhat spirally 

 twisted. 



TWIGS — Generally 4-sided' in mature trees, green from covering of 

 minute leaves, not flattened nor arranged in fan-shaped clusters, 

 becoming reddish-brown after the fall of the leaves. Photograph of 

 twigs is about % natural size. 



LEAVES — Dark green or reddish-brown, with aromatic odor when 

 crushed, persistent for several years, of two kinds: — • 



1. The form typical of the species; about 2 mm. or less long, scale- 

 like, opposite in pairs, forming 4 ranks, closely overlapping and 

 appressed, rounded, with or without an inconspicuous glandular dot on 

 the back, ovate, sharp or blunt-pointed. (See left hand twig.) 



2. The juvenile form; occurring often exclusively on very young 

 trees and also frequently together with the typical form on older 

 trees; narrow, awl-shaped to needle-shaped, sharp-pointed without 

 glands, spreading, scattered and not overlapping, opposite or in 3's, 

 5-20 mm. long. (See right hand twig.) 



BUDS — Inconspicuous. 



FRUIT — About the size of a small pea, fleshy, berry-like, dark-blue, 

 covered with a bloom, sweetish with a resinous flavor, containing gen- 

 erally 1-2 bony seeds. The fruit remains on the tree during winter but 

 the species is dioecious and consequently not all the trees bear fruit. 



COMPARISONS — The Red Cedar resembles the Coast White Cedar but 

 it fails to show a flattened fan-shaped arrangement of its twigs, its 

 twigs further are generally 4-sided when bearing lypical leaves and 

 on young trees and generally on some twigs of older trees leaves of 

 the juvenile type may be found. The berry-like fruit of the Red Cedar 

 w^hen present is the most distinctive character separating this species 

 from the Coast White Cedar. The Common Juniper is not to be con- 

 fused with Red Cedar trees that have typical leaves-. It resembles 

 somewhat the juvenile leaved form of the Red Cedar, however, but the 

 growth of the former is generally less upright, the leaves always in 

 3's and generally more whitened above and the buds are more 

 conspicuous. 



DISTRIBUTIOIV — Dry, rocky hills but not at great altitudes, borders 

 of lakes and streams, sterile plains, peaty swamps. Nova Scotia and 

 New Brunswick to Ontario; south to Florida; west to Dakota, Nebraska, 

 Kansas and Oklahoma. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — rare, though it extends northward to 

 tne middle Kennebec valley; reduced almost to a shrub; New Hampshire 

 — most frequent in the southeast part of the state; sparingly in the 

 Connecticut valley, as far north as Haverhill; found also in Hart's 

 location in the White Mountain region; Vermont — not abundant; occurs 

 here and there on hills at levels less than 1,000 feet; frequent in the 

 Champlain and lower Connecticut valleys; Massachusetts — west and 

 center occassional, eastward common; Connecticut and Rhode Island — • 

 common. 



AVOOD — Light, close-grained, brittle, not strong, dull red with thin 

 nearly white sapwood, very fragrant, easily worked; largely used for 

 posts, the sills of buildings, the interior finish of houses, the lining of 

 chests and closets as a protection of woolen garments against attacks 

 of moths, for pails and other small articles of wooden-ware, and es- 

 pecially for lead pencils. A decoction of the fruit and leaves is used 

 medicinally, and oil of Red Cedar is distilled from ^he leaves and wood 

 as a perfume. 



