30 GNETACEAE (jOINT FIR FAMILY) 



bose or oblong, marked by the tips of the flower-scales, 3-6 mm. long; the 

 flesh dry and sweet: seeds usually solitary, ovate, acute, conspicuously acutely 

 angled, the apex brown. Utah Juniper. — ^From the Wasatch Mountains in 

 Utah to California and Arizona. 



3. Juiiiperus Knightii A. Nels. Bot. Gaz. 25: 198. 1898. A scraggy shrub 

 or small tree, 3-7 m. high, much branched from the base, i. e., trunkless or 

 breaking up into several subequal trunks also freely branched; the branches 

 widely spreading, the lowest almost resting upon the ground: leaves 3-ranked, 

 closely appressed, rhomboidal in outline, thick, not pitted or glandular, long 



.persistent: branches and fruiting branchlets thick and rather rigid: berries 

 blue-green or copper-colored, marked by the points of the flower scales, ovoid 

 or subglobose, 7-10 mm. in diameter; the flesh dry and closeljr adherent but 

 more or less resinous (not sweet) : seed solitary, ovate, obtuse, slightly grooved 

 above, rounded or tumid at base, probably not maturing till the autumn of the 

 second year. Desert Juniper. — Common in arid situations (canons and 

 slopes) ; central to southwest Wyoming, probably adjacent Utah, and in similar 

 situations in western Colorado. 



4. Juniperus scopulorum Sarg. Card. & For. 10: 423. 1897. A tree 10- 

 20 m. high, with short, stout trunk, or sometimes branched from the base (in 

 very exposed situations), often a mere shrub: leaves opposite, appressed, acute 

 (in seedlings long and subulate), glandular on the back, dark green or pale and 

 glaucous: fruit ripening at the end of the second season, globose, bright blue, 

 with glaucous bloom; the flesh resinous: seeds usually 2 (often more), acute, 

 prominently grooved and angled. /. virginiana. Rocky Mountain Juni- 

 per. — Widely distributed in the mountains and table-lands of western America, 

 at middle elevations. 



5. Juniperus communis L. Sp. PI. 1040. 1753. A low tree or more often 

 an erect shrub: leaves in threes, subulate, rigid, prickly pointed, straight and 

 slender, 1-2 cm. long: berry dark blue. — Only the shrubby form within our 

 range and that passing into the variety 



5a. Juniperus communis sibirica (Burgsd.) Rydb. Contrib. U. S. Nat. 

 Herb. 3: 533. 1896. A low spreading shrub, rarely 1 m. high, forming dense, 

 usually circular patches: leaves in threes, crowded, rigid, channeled, and often 

 whitish above: berries small, fleshy, bluish, 1-3-seeded. /. communis aipina. — 

 Rocky hillsides and mountain slopes: throughout our range. 



6. Juniperus Sabina L. Sp. PI. 1039. 1753. A depressed shrub usually less 

 than 1 m. high, in our range wholly prostrate, the stems creeping and rooting: 

 leaves short and scale-like, 4-ranked, on young plants subulate and spiny- 

 tipped: berry light blue, glaucous, borne on short peduncle-like branchlets: 

 seeds 1-4. — On banks and slopes; not frequent; Wyoming and Montana, east 

 to New York. 



9. GNETACEAE Lindl. Joint Fir Family 



Shrubs or small trees, mostly with jointed opposite or fascicled branches 

 and foliaceous or scale-like opposite (or ternate) exstipulate leaves, the flowers 

 mostly dioecious, with decussate persistent bracts. Staminate flowers in 

 aments, with solitary or monadelphous stamens within a membranous bifid 

 calyx-like perianth, the anther-cells dehiscent by a pore or chink at the apex. 

 Pistillate flower an erect sessile ovule terminated by an exserted style-like 

 process, included within a perianth which becomes hardened and often thick- 

 ened in fruit. 



1. EPHEDRA L. Joint Firs 



Shrubs with numerous Equisetum-like branches. Leaves reduced to sheath- 

 ing scales, persistent or deciduous. Inflorescence axillary; the 3-8 filaments 

 united into a clnviitp stamineal column. 



