WESTERN JUNIPER. 13 



kindred mysteries to Myrtle odors in every one's personal 

 experience, that commend them and their like to culture? 

 or what else is it that hallows and charms our affections, but 

 sweetness of spirit, and other mental quality within, that so 

 blinds us to irregular forms and features of friends, objective 

 or individual, with whom we hold such pleasant converse? 

 Is it not the real soul, or something like it on the other side, 

 beaming through ? Or let us reconsider the ground of our 

 esteem for numberless pets of the garden, field, and forest — ■ 

 true, one of a thousand may possibly be fairer to us than the 

 rose or the lily, and altogether lovely; if so, we have indeed 

 found at least one of the real trees of natural life, perchance 

 of foliage, flowers, and fruits of honor; trees of renown, the 

 planting of Jehovah, that He may be glorified, glorified in 

 man, in that only paradise of the soul, wherein is found 

 celestial joy and gladness and the voice of melody. 



As these Myrtles abound in benzoic and tannic acids, resin- 

 ous matters, and fragrant volatile oils, the bark and leaves 

 are esteemed in the arts and for medicine. The wood is. 

 used as fuel. 



WESTERN JUNIPER 



(Juniperus Oceidentalis.) 



" And as Elijah lay and slept under a Juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched 

 him. ' — Ancient Book of Kings, Vol. I : xix : 5. 



THE Western Juniper is one of the most venerable and 

 picturesque trees of all the higher mountain regions of 

 California — venerable as to appearance, and for the 

 vast antiquity of the larger trees, which date far back, nearly 

 to the Great Sequoian age; and picturesque, for often hun- 

 dreds, nay, thousands of miles may be traversed without 

 meeting a single perfect tree. All seem more or less dis- 

 mantled, or the top altogether carried away by storms or 

 the ever-recurring snow-slides. When viewing these veter- 

 ans, let us bear in mind they have braved the eventful cycles 

 of time, that are measured by many thousands of years, with 

 a vitality almost equal to the olive tree. If killed by any 

 cause on one side, the other still goes on its life-long journey, 

 eccentrically developing, until the investigator finds it con- 

 venient to take bearings in order to determine the original 

 center. This broad base of accelerated expansion is always 

 more or less unsymmetrical by those big bars of swelled or 

 anguloid eccentricity so eminently characteristic. Above, it 



