166 TREES OF MINNESOTA. 



Juniperus virg-iniana. Red Cedar.* Red Juniper* 

 Savin. 



Leaves small, evergreen, opposite, scale-like and awl 

 shaped, the former sort minute, the latter about i inch long 

 and spreading. Flowers dioecious, or very rarely monoe- 

 cious; the small solitary catkins upon lateral twigs appearing 

 in this section in May. Fruit a small dark colored fleshy 

 berry-like cone with a light blueish bloom. Fruit, leaves, and 

 wood are aromatic and resinous. 



Distribution. It is the most widely distributed conifer of 

 North America. It ranges from the Atlantic to the Rocky 

 Mountains and from northern Minnesota to Florida. In 

 western Louisiana and Texas it makes a tree sometimes 80' 

 feet high and 3 or more feet in diameter, but it is usually very 

 much smaller. In this section it is nowhere abundant, rarely 

 thirty feet high and generally short and bushy. In the north 

 of its range it grows on dry land, while in the south it is 

 often found in swamps. 



Propagation. By seeds. For planting the berries should 

 be gathered in Autumn, then bruised and mixed with an equal 

 or greater bulk of wet wood ashes or strong lye. In three weeks 

 the ashes or lye will have cut the resinous gum so that the seeds 

 can be washed clean. They should then be stratified over 

 winter and be sown in the spring as recommended for coni- 

 ferous seeds in general. The bed should be covered with 

 mulch for the first season as the seeds do not usually start 

 until the second year. There are a number of varieties which 

 may be propagated by cuttings of the young wood or by layers' 



Properties of wood. Light, soft, close grained, but brittle 

 and not strong, dull red, with thin nearly white sapwood, very 

 fragrant, easily worked and extremely durable in contact 

 with the soil. Specific gravity 0.4926, weight of a cubic foot 

 30.7 pounds. 



Uses. The Red Cedar is a valuable ornamental tree for 

 this section, of rather slow growth except when young, but 

 very hardy and durable. It makes an excellent low wind- 

 break or hedge and bears close pruning without injury. The 

 leaves generally turn brown by the latter part of winter. The 



*Not the Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) of the Pacific Coast. 



