Juniperus 1401 



the fruit is composed. Seeds usually three, rarely two, immersed in a soft resinous 

 mealy sweet pulp ; light-brown, elongated-ovoid, triquetrous, narrowed at the 

 summit, which is compressed into a thin transverse ridge ; broad at the base, above 

 which on the sides are a few large depressions for resin-glands. Seedling, with two 

 cotyledons, the primary leaves and those of the second year being arranged in 

 whorls of fours. 



Varieties 



The common juniper in the wild state displays a considerable amount of 

 variation in the length and breadth of the leaves, and in the size and shape of the 

 fruit ; and numerous varieties based on these characters have been named by 

 Ascherson and Graebner and other botanists, most of which need not be even 

 mentioned here. The most remarkable varieties are the following : — 



I. Var. nana, Loudon, op. cit. 2489 (1838) ; Ascherson and Graebner, op. cit. 246 

 (1898); Kirchner and Schroter, op. cit. 303 (1906). 



Var. y, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 1040 (1753). 



Var. saxatilis, Pallas, Fl. Ross. ii. 12, t. 54 (1788). 



Var. montana, Solander, in Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 414 (1789). 



Var. alpina, Gaudin, Fl. Helv. vi. 301 (1830). 



Var. depressa, Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. ii. 646 (1814). 



Var. sibirica, Rydberg, in Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb. iii. 533 (1896). 



Juniperus sibirica, Burgsdorf, Anleit. ii. No. 272 (1787), and ii. 127 (1790). 



Juniperus nana, Willdenow, Berl. Baumz. 159 (1796), and Sp. PI. iv. 854 (1805). 



Juniperus alpina, J. E. Gray, Nat. Arr. Brit. PL ii. 226 (1821). 



Juniperus depressa, Rafinesque, Medic. PI. ii. 13 (1830). 



Juniperus canadensis, Loddiges, Cat. 1836, p. 47 ; Loudon, op. cit. 2490 (1838). 



Juniperus pygmma, Koch, in Linncea, xxii. 302 (1849). 



A low prostrate spreading shrub, seldom more than a foot in height. Branchlets 

 stouter than in the type. Leaves shorter, less spreading, \^o\ in. long, ^ to j^ in. 

 broad, linear- subulate, gradually tapering to the spine-like apex ; upper surface 

 very concave, with a continuous white stomatic band ; lower surface convex, bluntly 

 keeled. Fruit blue, glaucous, globose, \ in. in diameter ; seeds one, two, or three, 

 smaller than in the type. 



This, which is the alpine and arctic variety ^ of J. communis, is considered by 

 many botanists to be a distinct species ; but Kirchner and Schroter adduce good 

 reasons for supposing it to be only a form, due to climatic conditions. Connecting 

 links ^ between the type and var. nana are found both in the Alps and in Lapland ; 

 and experimental sowings of the latter at Berlin and Zurich gave seedlings which 

 resembled the common juniper in all respects. Similarly plants of common juniper 

 from Fontainebleau, which were cultivated by Bonnier^ on Mont Blanc at 6800 feet, 

 assumed the habit of var, nana in three years. 



1 J. dtalbaia, Douglas, ex Gordon, in Gard. Chron. 1842, p. 652, isy. communis, var. nana. Cf. p. 1436, note 2. 

 * These have been distinguished as var. intermedia, Sanio, in Deut. Bot. Monatsschrf. i. 51 (1883) ; and asy. intermedia, 

 Schur, in Verh. Siebenb. Naturw. v. ii. 169 (1850). 



' Assoc. Franc. Avanc. Sci., Compt. Rend. 1892, pt. ii. 521. 



