THE LARCHES 277 



round-topped above a buttressed, twisted trunk, as it 

 grows old. The scale-like leaves are four-ranked, blue- 

 green when young, spreading, and sometimes three 

 fourths of an inch long, on vigorous new shoots. The 

 dark blue berries are covered with a pale bloom and have 

 a resinous, sweet flesh. This juniper is familiar in aban- 

 doned farms and ragged fence-rows, becoming rusty 

 brown in foliage to match the stringy red bark in winter 

 time. The durable red wood is used for posts and railroad 

 ties, for cedar chests and pencils. The tree is profitably 

 planted by railroad companies, as cedar ties are unsur- 

 passed. In cultivation the tree forms an interesting, 

 symmetrical specimen, adapted to formal gardens. (See 

 illustration t page 230.) 



The Red Juniper 



J. Barbadensis, Linn. 



The red juniper, much more luxuriant than its close 

 relative of the North, is the handsomest juniper in culti- 

 vation. Its pyramid is robbed of a rigid formal expression 

 by the drooping of its fern-like leaf -spray. The berries are 

 silvery white and abundant. The wood is used princi- 

 pally for pencils. This species grows in the Gulf states. 



THE LARCHES, OR TAMARACKS 



The notable characteristic of the small genus, larix, is 

 that the narrow leaves are shed in the autunm. Here is 

 a tall pyramidal conifer which is not evergreen. It 

 bears an annual crop of small woody cones, held erect 



