PINE FAMILY 



JUNIPER. GROUND CEDAR 



Juniperus commimis. 



Evergreen, varying from a low tree to an erect, or a matted or a 

 prostrate shrub. As a tree its maximum height is about twenty- 

 five feet. Branches spreading, or erect, or drooping. Ranges from 

 Greenland to Alaska, in the east southward to Pennsylvania and 

 northern Nebraska, in the Rocky Mountains to Texas, Mexico and 

 Arizona. Bark and fruit aromatic. 



Bark. — Dark reddish brown, separating into loose papery scales. 

 Branchlets slender, smooth, lustrous, three-angled between the nodes, 

 at first pale reddish yellow growing gradually darker. By the third 

 year the bark begins to scale. 



Buds. — Ovate, acute, one-eighth of an inch long, covered with 

 scale-like leaves. 



Leaves. — Linear-lanceolate, free, jointed at the base, acute, rigid, 

 spreading nearly at right angles to the branches, sometimes reflexed, 

 tipped with sharp, rigid, cartilaginous points, verticillate in threes, 

 often with smaller ones fascicled in their channels. One-half to 

 three-fourths an inch long, channelled and hoary above, dark yellow 

 green and shining below ; persistent for many years. They have an 

 unpleasant slightly astringent flavor, and during winter turn a dark 

 bronze on lower surface. 



Flowers. — April, May. Usually dioecious. From buds formed 

 in the autumn in the axils of leaves of the year. The staminate 

 flower consists of scales each bearing three stamens, verticillate on a 

 central axis ; anther-cells three or four. The pistillate, of numerous 

 scales each bearing three ovules, arranged on a central axis. 



Fruit. — Berry-like strobile, maturing the second year. Dark 

 blue, glaucous, subglobose or oblong. Tipped with the remnants 

 of the ovules. One-fourth of an inch in diameter ; flesh soft, mealy, 

 resinous, aromatic, sweet, persists one or two years after ripening. 



The common Juniper or Ground Cedar is a most interest- 

 ing plant. In the first place it is the most vi'idely distributed 

 tree of the northern hemisphere, ranging around the earth on 

 the line of the arctic circle, and in America southward to the 

 highlands of Pennsylvania in the east, and to northern Cali- 

 fornia in the west. It spreads over northern, central, and 

 eastern Asia, ranges to the Himalayas where it ascends 14,- 

 000 feet above sea level. It is common throughout northern 



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