18 BULLETIN 207, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



MOUNTAIN RED CEDAR. 



Juniperus scopulorum Sargent. 



COMMON NAME AND EARLY HISTORY. 



Mountain red cedar was for a long time supposed to be a western 

 form of the red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) of northeastern United 

 States. The two species resemble each other in the general appear- 

 ance of their foliage and fruit and especially in the dark purple-red 

 color of their heartwood, but the mountain red cedar differs funda- 

 mentally from the eastern cedar in that its berries require two sea- 

 sons to mature, while those of the latter species mature in one. 



Mountain red cedar was first discovered in 1804 1 by Lewis and 

 Clark while on their memorable expedition 2 across this continent. 

 The first technical name applied to the tree is Juniperus excelsa 

 Pursh, 3 which was published in 1814. From 1838 to 1897 other 

 authors referred to this tree mainly as J. virginiana and sometimes as 

 J. occidentalis, while specimens shown at the Centennial Exposition 

 in 1876 were described as J. virginiana var. montana Vasey. 4 Prof. 

 C. S. Sargent 5 distinguished the tree from J. virginiana in 1897 

 and named it J. scopulorum. A noteworthy fact is, however, that 

 in 1876 Dr. George Vasey, the first botanist of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, gave to this tree the distinct common 

 name "Rocky Mountain red cedar," 6 and also pointed out the 

 fundamental differences between its crown form and the eastern 

 red cedar. His recognition of these distinctions would seem to 

 show that Dr. Vasey was really the first author to separate this tree 

 from its eastern relative and but for his unfortunate use of a pre- 

 occupied name ("var. 'montana'''') Dr. Vasey's name for the tree 

 probably could now be maintained. 



DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS. 



In open, exposed situations mountain red cedar is somewhat bushy 

 and from 10 to 20 feet high, with a short trunk from 6 to 10 inches 

 in diameter, and a rather narrow, rounded crown of large, long limbs 

 trending upward. Often the very short trunk is divided into several 

 stems. In sheltered canyons and other protected places, however, 

 the trunk is straight and sharply tapered, while the tree has an open, 

 slender-branched crown, and attains a height of from 25 to 30 or 

 more feet and a diameter of from 12 to 30 inches. In this form the 



» Fide Sargent, Silva, XIV, 94, 1902. 



2 History of Expedition under Command of Lewis and Clark, ii, 457 (ed. Coues). 



3 This name is unavailable for the mountain red cedar, because Bieberstein applied it to an Asiatic juniper 

 in 1800. 



* A name preoccupied by Aiton, who in 1789 applied it to a form of the common juniper {Juniperus coin- 

 munis), thus making it unavailable for the Rocky Mountain tree. 

 6 Garden and Forest X, 420, fig. 54, 1897. 

 « Report U. S. Dept. Agr. 1875, 185, 1876. 



