G. 107] 



CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION 



199 



are a great many varieties of this species in cultivation, but few of 

 them grow tall enough to be considered trees. 



Var. Hibernica (Irish Juniper) grows erect like a column. Var. 

 Alpina is a low creeping plant. Var. hemisplwrica is almost like a 

 half-sphere lying on the ground. 



2. Juniperus Virginiana, L. (BED CEDAR.) 

 Leaves very small and numerous, scale-like on 

 the older branches, but awl-shaped and some- 

 what spreading on the young shoots ; dark 

 green. Fruit small, in., abundant on the 

 pistillate plants, dark purple and covered with 

 fine, glaucous bloom. Trees from 20 to 80 ft. 

 high (sometimes only shrubs), with mostly 

 horizontal branches, thin, scaling bark, dense 

 habit of growth, and dark foliage. Wood 

 light, fine-grained, durable ; the heart-wood of a handsome dark red 

 color. Wild throughout ; several varieties are found in* cultivation. 

 Many other species from China, Japan, California, etc., are occasion- 

 ally cultivated, but few are large enough to be called trees, and 

 those that are large enough are not of sufficient importance to need 

 specific notice. 



GENUS 107. TAXTJS. 



Leaves evergreen, flat, linear, mucronate, rigid, scat- 

 tered, appearing more or less 2-ranked. Fertile flowers 

 and the fruit solitary ; the fruit, a nut-like seed in a cup- 

 shaped, fleshy portion formed from a disk ; red. 



Txus baccata, L. (COMMON EU- 

 ROPEAN YEW.) Leaves evergreen, 2- 

 ranked, crowded, linear, flat, curved, 

 acute. Fruit a nut-like seed within a 

 cup y z in. in diameter ; red when ripe 

 in the autumn. As this species is 

 somewhat dioecious, a portion of the 

 plants will be without fruit. A widely 

 spreading shrub rather than a tree, 

 extensively cultivated under nearly a 

 score of named varieties. We have 

 a closely related wild species, Taxus 

 Canad6nsis (THE GROUND-HEMLOCK), 

 which is merely a low straggling bush. 



