THE JUNIPERS. 



271 



VIII.— JUNIPERUS (IAnnceus). The Juniper. 



The Jumpers are medium- sized or low trees, of fastigiate or 

 columnar habit, and bushy shrubs, occasionally quite prostrate, 

 inhabiting all parts of the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arctic 

 regions to the Tropic, being most abundant in the temperate 

 regions of Europe and North America. Unlike most of the 

 members of the Cypress Tribe, the branches of the Junipers are 

 not frondose, but the secondary branches are produced on all 

 sides of the primaries, and generally at a very acute angle to 

 them. The foliage is dimorphous, consisting either of small prickly 



acicular leaves in whorls of threes, 

 or of scale-like leaves, imbricated 

 in four rows, as in Cypress, Thuia, 

 &c. Often both kinds are seen 

 on the same plant at different 

 stages of its growth. The. Juni- 

 pers are dioecious, but exceptions 

 are sometimes met with, and in 

 such cases the staminate and 

 ovule bearing catkins are borne on 

 different branches. Dr. Lindley 

 remarks, that "the distinguishing 

 character of the Junipers consists 

 in the female fructification being 

 succulent, consolidated, and re- 

 duced in the number of its parts 

 below what is usual in the Order 

 to which the genus belongs." Like other Coniferse, the fruit is com- 

 posed of scales representing carpels spread open, and collected in a 

 spiral manner round a common axis. But they are not more than 

 six in number, generally three, and when ripe, are fleshy and consoli- 

 dated into a body resembling a drupe; in the language of the 

 pharmacopeia, they are berries, in that of the botanists they are 

 termed galbuli* They vary a little in colour in the different species, 

 being in some a deep purple, in others, black, red, or reddish- 

 brown ; they differ also in size, from that of a sloe to a small 

 * Bug. Cyclopaedia, iii,, p, 310. 



Fig. 60.— Fertile branchlet of Junyperm thurifera. 



