BACCIFER^. 



147 



OUonga, and the J apan kind named Taxifolia, I place here as, at 

 best, but quasi-species, and more nearly related to Rigida than to 

 Communis ; for I cannot admit either of them as distinct species : and 

 moreover, I incline to the belief that even Rigida is at best but a quasi- 

 species of the common Juniper; and, doubtless, if we knew its history 

 we would know that it was introduced into, and was not originally 

 indigenous in, China or Japan ; though we are informed that it is 

 indigenous in those countries ; yet, we must remember that naturaliza- 

 tion, by cultivation and length of time, may constitute this or any 

 other plant, what we are pleased to term a native or indigenous 

 plant ; particularly in countries whose history is comparatively speaking, 

 unknown to us ; and whose vegetable products are so numerous in 

 quasi-species and varieties ; many of which are so superlatively beau- 

 tiful, that the fact is evident, that for ages past the secluded and little 

 known Orientals, had been well up in the theory and practice of all 

 the cultural arts ; for their present proficiency in plant growing is not 

 a newly acquired knowledge, but an old growth of many years ; not for 

 scores, nor hundreds of years, but more probably for thousands were 

 the truth known : and doubtless many of their metamorphosed forms, 

 quasi-species, varieties and sub-varieties of Pinacese which we have 

 lately received from these ancient and knowing culturists, whose 

 innate knowledge of vegetable phytology, and practice of all the arts of 

 hybridization, and artful modes of cultivation, owe their origin not so 

 much to natural selection, as to cultural perfection ; the manufactures 

 of man from nature's staples, rather than the lineal descendants, of the 

 prototype or original species of the firs and pines. 



§ 3. SabinOIDES: The Savin-like Junipers. 



The " Savins " are wrongly called " herbs " by some ancient and 

 medical authors : they are indeed, small trees or large shrubs with, fre- 

 quently, a large and strong stem. The ancients mention two kinds of 

 them, Sterills and Baccifera^ — our male and female forms; and by 

 some writers they are frequently confounded with the " Tamarisk." 



It has been disputed whether they should be classed as JunijDers, 

 Cypresses, or Arbor- Yitaes ; but doubtless, the disputants' learning was of 

 the meretricious and superficial kind ; certainly not of the practical 

 character, inasmuch as a Juniper is a Baccifer^ and the Cypress 

 and Arbor- Vitse are Conifers, Our Juniper us Sahina is the Greek 

 (jpadv, hrathu, which Pliny latinizes by bruta and gives a very full 

 description of, lib. xii, c. 17, — " hke to a cypress, audits odour nearly 



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