CHAP. CXII 



CONJ FKRiE. JUNl'PERUS. 



249 i 



2348 



At 



flowers are sometimes on the same plant with 

 the females, though at a distance from them ; 

 but they are commonly on distinct plants. The 

 female flowers are succeeded by roundish ber- 

 ries, which are first green, but, when ripe, are 

 of a dark purple or blackish blue colour, co- 

 vered with a bloom. They continue on the 

 bush two years, and are sessile in the axils of 

 the leaves. They are juiceless, spongy-fleshed, 

 and each contains 3 stones. Each berry is 

 marked at top with 3 raised dots and a 3-forked 

 groove, received at bottom into a very small star- 

 red involucre. When planted in a deep sandy 

 loam, the common juniper will grow 15 ft. or 

 16 ft. high, and will form a handsome bushy 

 shrub. In Birch Wood, near Farningham, is the juniper of which^g. 2350. is a 

 portrait to a scale of 1 in. to 12 ft., for the drawing of which we are indebted 

 to J. F. Christy, Esq. This remarkable tree is 20 ft. high, with a trunk 5 ft. 

 8 in. in circumference at the base, and 4 ft. 1 in. at 2 ft. from the ground. In 

 the grounds at Pain's Hill is a bush 15 ft. high, and 36 ft. in diameter. 

 White Knights, there are several hundreds of plants, varying 

 in height from 2 ft. to 12 ft. ; but the largest of the species in 

 England is probably that at Wardour Castle, which is 30 ft. high. 

 Of the variety J. c. 2 suecica, there is a specimen at Farnham 

 Castle, 40ft. high. The rate of growth of the taller-growing 

 varieties, in the climate of London, is from 6 in. to 9 in. a 

 year, till the plants are 6 ft. or 8 ft. high, after which they 

 grow more slowly ; and their duration is more than a cen- 



tuI 7- 



Geography. The juniper is common in all the northern 



parts of Europe, both in fertile and barren soils, on hills and 

 in valleys, in open sandy plains or in moist and close woods. 

 On the sides of the hills, its trunk grows tall ; but on the 

 tops of rocky mountains, and in bogs, it is only a shrub. In 

 England, it is found chiefly on open downs, in a chalky or 

 sandy soil. In the southern countries of Europe, it is less common, except in 

 very elevated situations. According to Pursh, it is found in North America, 

 about rocks, near the falls of rivers, in Canada, and the western part of New 

 York ; and the variety ./. c. depressa in the state of New York, and particu- 

 larly in the province of Maine, in rocky or gravelly situations. The common 

 juniper, he adds, " may probably have been originally brought from Europe ; 

 but the variety, or, probably, distinct species, ./. c. depressa, seems to be 

 really a native." {Pursh Fl. Amcr. Sept., ii. p. 646.) In Asia, the common 

 juniper was found by Capt. Webb in Nepal, and on the Bhotan Alps. In all 

 these countries it generally grows in dry soil, and never attains a large size 

 but in soils which are dry and deep. 



History. The juniper is mentioned in the Bible, in the First Book of 

 Kings, as the tree under which the prophet Elijah took refuge in the wilder- 

 ness of Beersheba, to avoid the persecution of King Ahab. It was known to 

 the Greeks, who used its berries medicinally, though they thought its shade 

 unwholesome. Pliny says the juniper has the same properties as the cedar ; 

 adding that, in his time, it grew in Spain to a great size ; but that wherever 

 it grows its heart is always sound. He also says that a piece of juniper 

 wood, when ignited, will, if covered with ashes of the same wood, keep on 

 fire a whole year. It is mentioned by Virgil, who says that its shade is hurt- 

 ful both to men and corn. The species referred to by the classical writers is, 

 in all probability, not the common juniper, but the Phoenician, or some other 

 species of the south of Europe. The botanists of the middle ages appear to 

 have had a high opinion of the virtues of the common juniper. Tragus asserts 



2349 ^W 



