JUNIPERUS VIRGINUNA. 283 



yellow, or brown. In its most familiar aspect it is a medium- 

 sized tree of pyramidal form, with branches that are at first erect 

 or sub-erect, afterwards horizontal, and in old trees frequently 

 decumbent. The branchlets are numerous, often crowded, and 

 clothed with short acicular leaves in whorls of threes, but 

 frequently they are minute, scale-like, and imbricated like those of 

 the common Savin. The berries, which are no larger than small 

 peas, are dark blue, covered with a white glaucous bloom. 



Habitat. — North America, from the Great Lakes to the Mexican 

 Gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. 



Introduced in 1664, by Evelyn. 



The Ked Cedar is distributed over a large extent of country. 

 " From Lake Champlain it spreads through, the Atlantic States without 

 interruption to Florida, and thence round the Gulf of Mexico to 

 beyond St. ^Bernard's Bay. Further inland it is less common, but it 

 occurs abundantly on the mountain slopes of Nevada, and it has" been 

 seen even further west ; it is also met with in Texas and New 

 Mexico. Closely allied forms also occur in the Bermuda islands. 

 (Juntperus bermudiana), and Mexico (J. mexicana). In so ex- 

 tensive a range the Eed Cedar varies much in form and colour of 

 foliage ; in dry and sterile rocky places in the Northern States it is 

 a mere shrub ; in the more humid and warmer climate of Virginia it 

 is a tree 50 feet high. Under cultivation it is also polymorphous, 

 of which every seed bed furnishes abundant instances, so that it is 

 not easy to select any particular type as a representative one for the 

 whole species. M. Carriere* is of opinion that this variety of form 

 is an effect of the dioecious character of the plant." II y a des 

 individus exclusivement males, d'autres exclusivement femelles, et d'autres 

 p.nfin qui, a des degr^s differents, portent les deux sexes. Ce qui est 

 encore k remarquer, c'est ce que ces caracteres agissent sur le facies, 

 et qu'elles donnent souvent aux plantes un aspect particulier. Cette 

 particularite, qui probablement s'applique a d'autus especes de Juniperus 

 pourrait peut-etre expliquer la multiplicity qu'en a faite d'especes qui, 

 pour beaucoup, ne sont probablement que des formes d'un seul type. 



The economic value of the wood of the Ked Cedar is very great, and 

 the uses to which it is applied in America are numerous. The 

 matured or heart wood is of a fine red colour, whence the popular 

 name of the tree ; it is of close texture and fine in grain, admitting 

 of a high polish ; it is also very fragrant, on which account it is 

 employed in cabinet work and inlaying ; it is durable, and free from 

 the attacks of insects ; it resists for a long time the action of water, 



* Traits' de General Cmiftres, p. 47. 



