JUNIPER BUSH. 



19T 



Disce et ouoratam stabulis accendere cedruni 



Georgic iii. 



" Learn also to burn the odorous ccdar in your folds." 



Martyn's Translation. 



AVhatever the Cedar of Virgil may have been, it was 

 certainly not the Cedar of Lebanon, and as certainly is 

 understood to have been a species of Juniper. ^lay 

 translates this pa^ssage — 



But learn to burn within your sheltering rooms 

 Sweet Jumper." 



The smoke of Cedar was supposed bv the Romans to 

 drive away serpents. 



Theoplirastus describes a Cedar as oTov\-ing in Syria, 

 so large that tlii*ee men could not encompass one : this 

 is generally understood to mean the Phoenician Cedar, 

 sinc€ he describes it as bearing a berrv, not a cone*. 



The virtues of some species of the Juniper are very 

 considerable, more particulai'lv of the common Juniper : 

 sugar may be obtained from the berries ; the Swedes 

 prepare a beer from them ; and the Laplanders use a 

 decoction of them as we use tea or coffee. A wine is 

 prepared from them also, called Juniper wine , and thev 

 are in manv cases found efficacious in medicinal pre- 

 parations, as also are the voung shoots, and the wood. 



The Savin and the Lvcian Juniper are also useful in 

 medicine. 



Mart\Ti says that the gTim-resin, called Oi'iba/ium, is 

 supposed to be the incense formerly used by the ancients 

 in their religious ceremonies, though not the substance 

 known bv that name in the shops. It is much em- 



* Sec Martyn's Virgil, p. 202. 



