PINE FAMILY 
and central Europe. In North America though not abundant 
it is generally distributed. It is evidently one of those trees 
which has been driven from the better lands by more power- 
ful competitors, for in its temperate habitat it is found on 
dry, sterile, gravelly slopes, or worn-out pastures or upon high 
mountain-sides. Because of its enormous geographical range 
it naturally varies greatly in form, changing from a tree 
twenty-five feet high with a trunk ten inches in diameter toa 
prostrate shrub. Its remains occur in the tertiary rocks of 
Europe. 
The Juniper may be readily recognized among evergreens, 
by its awl-like leaves, arranged in whorls of threes, spread- 
ing, sharp pointed, channelled and hoary above, shining 
green below. 
The fruit reaches maturity very slowly. The species is 
dicecious and the flowers appear late in the spring. During 
the first year the fruit does not enlarge, it looks during all 
its first winter like a flower-bud, but at the blooming period 
of the second year it feels the impulse of quickening life and 
begins to grow, and by the second winter it has become a 
hard, green, tiny sphere about three-quarters of its full size, 
covered with white bloom. During the following season it 
continues to develop and in early autumn becomes dark blue 
or bluish black covered with a glaucous bloom, with soft, 
mealy, aromatic flesh, and one to three seeds. This aromatic 
fruit is gathered in large quantities and used in the manu- 
facture of gin ; whose peculiar flavor and medicinal proper- 
ties are due to the oil of Juniper berries, which is secured by 
adding the crushed fruit to undistilled grain spirit, or by al- 
lowing the spirit vapor to pass over it before condensation. 
The seeds of the Juniper are almost as slow to germinate as 
tuey were to mature, requiring two years. Thirteen varieties 
of Juniperus communis ave reported in the Check List of the 
Forest Trees of the United States and several foreign species 
are also in cultivation. All are tolerant of the knife, and it 
affords gardeners much pleasure to make them assume pecul- 
iar and fantastic shapes. 
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