102 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
J. 7. Tue Junrrer. Juniperus. L. 
The junipers are evergreen trees or shrubs, found in all quar- 
ters of the globe. They are distinguished by their fruit, which 
is a three-sided, berry-like galbule, made up of several thickened, 
fleshy, coalescing ovaries, and usually covered with a bluish 
bloom. The leaves are opposite, or in whorls, narrow, stiff and 
pointed, sometimes minute and scale-like. The wood is more 
or less aromatic, and is very durable. The berries are employ- 
ed in medicine as a diuretic, and to give its peculiar flavor 
to gin. 
The species in Massachusetts are, 1. The Red Cedar, which 
is a small tree; and 2. The Common Juniper, a prostrate 
shrub. 
Sp. 1. Tue Rep Cepar. Juniperus Virginiana. L. 
Figured in Michaux; Sylva, III, Plate 155. 
By Bigelow ; Med. Bot. Hil, Plate 45. 
And in Loudon’s Arboretum; VIII, Plate 298. 
This is usually a ragged looking tree. In the neighbor- 
hood of Boston, it is commonly found on dry, rocky hills, 
where it sometimes attains the height of thirty or thirty-five 
feet. When it grows by itself on the open ground, it throws 
out several large limbs close to the earth, which, extending 
horizontally a few feet, and sometimes taking root, sweep up- 
wards and often almost equal the main stem, forming together 
what seems to be a clump of small trees rather than a single 
tree. Surrounded by other trees in a wood, it has a smooth, 
clear trunk for twelve or fifteen feet, and a handsome spiry 
head. On the rocks it assumes every variety of form, round- 
headed, irregular, or cone-shaped, sometimes not without 
beauty. 
The red cedar is distinguished from the white and the arbor 
vite, the only trees which it resembles, by having its fruit in the 
form of a berry, and its leaves exhibiting but slightly a ten- 
dency to arrange themselves ina plane. The trunk: is straight, 
rapidly decreasing, and full of branches. It is often deformed 
