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



dance of berries. The absence of young trees may have been due, 

 however, to the overgrazed state of the ground, which doubtless 

 prevented germination of the seed. 



This species is suitable for planting on dry foothills and lower 

 mountain slopes of the Southwest, where it should succeed at eleva- 

 tions between 2,500 and 6,000 feet. 



LONGEVITY. 



Complete information is not available regarding the longevity of 

 big-berried juniper. Judging from the size of the trees produced 

 in the comparatively dry habitat, however, it probably attains an 

 age of not less than 250 or 300 years. 



ALLIGATOR JUNIPER. 



Juniperus pachyphloea Torrey. 



COMMON NAME AND EARLY HISTORY. 



Alligator juniper is unique in the thick, sharply checkered bark 

 of its trunk (PL XX), the resemblance of which to the body scales 

 of an alligator suggested its widely accepted common name, a charac- 

 teristic which also distinguishes it sharply from all other native 

 junipers. It is sometimes known as " oak-barked juniper" and 

 "thick-barked juniper." 



Alligator juniper was discovered in 1851 on the Zuni Mountains 

 of northwestern New Mexico by Dr. S. W. Woodhouse, then a member 

 of Capt. Sitgreaves's exploring party, which descended the Zuni and 

 Colorado Rivers. An account of this discovery was published in 1853, 1 

 and the tree was technically named and described in 1858. 



Three garden varieties of alligator juniper, recently established by 

 Barbier, 2 are distinguished in cultivation, namely, Juniperus pachy- 

 phloea conspicua, J. pachyphloea elegentissima, and J. pachyphloea 

 ericoides. 



DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS. 



This species is one of the most massive of our junipers. In early 

 life the crown is open and broadly conical, and in old age, dense 

 and round. The trunk is short and clear of branches for 6 or per- 

 haps 10 feet. As a rule, the tree attains a height of from 30 to 40 

 feet, and a diameter of from lh to 3 J feet. Exceptional trees are 

 from 50 to 65 feet or more in height, and from 4 to 6 feet in diameter, 

 with from 15 to 20 feet of clear trunk. In exposed dry situations it 

 is stunted, the trunks often dividing at the ground into several 

 twisted stems (PI. XXI). The deeply furrowed bark, from one-half 



1 Report of an expedition down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers under the command of Capt. L. Sitgreaves, 

 35, 1853. 



2 Mitteil. Deutschen Dendr. Gesellschaft 1910, 139, 289. 



