PINE FAMILY 
JUNIPER. GROUND CEDAR 
Sundperus commitnis. 
Evergreen, varying from a low tree to an erect, or a matted ora 
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 dicecious. From buds formed 
in the autumn inthe axils of leaves of the year. The staminate 
flower consists of scales each bearing three stamens, verticillate ona 
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 widely 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,- 
ooo feet above sea level. It is common throughout northern 
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