476 
RURAL HOURS. 
six feet high. It is found in the Highlands, and is not uncommon 
northward. 
The Juniper, or Red Cedar, is common enough in many parts 
of the country. Besides this variety, which is a tree, there is 
another, a low shrub, trailing on the ground, found along the 
great lakes, and among our northern hills, and this more closely 
resembles the European Juniper, whose berries are used in gin.* 
Among the trees of note in this part of the country are also 
several whose northern limits scarcely extend beyond this State, 
and which are rare with us, while we are familiar with their 
names through our friends farther south. The Liquid Amber, or 
Sweet- Gum, is rare in this State, though very common in New 
Jersey ; and on the coast it even reaches Portsmouth, in New 
Hampshire. 
The Persimmon grows on the Hudson as far as the Highlands, 
and in the extreme southern counties. It is rather a handsome 
tree, its leaves are large and glossy, and its fruit, as most of us 
are aware, is very good indeed, and figures often in fairy tales as 
the medlar. 
The Magnolias of several kinds are occasionally met with. The 
small Laurel Magnolia, or Sweet Bay, is found as far north as 
New York, in swampy grounds. The Cucumber Magnolia grows 
in rich woods in the western part of our State ; and there is one 
in this village, a good-sized tree, perhaps thirty feet high ; it is 
doing very well here, though the Weeping Willow will not bear 
our climate. This tree, in favorable spots, attains a height of 
* Sir Charles Lyell supposes the American white Cedar, or Cypress, so com- 
mon on the Mohawk, to have been the food of the Mastodon, from an examina- 
tion of the contents of the stomach of one of these animals. 
