Shrub. — Flowers in May. 
A low, evergreen, bushy shrub, seldom rising more than three or 
four feet high; and sending out many spreading, tough, leafy 
branches, which incline on every side, and are covered with a 
smooth, brown or reddish bark, with a tinge of purple. Branches, 
when young, somewhat triangular, or quadrangular, the angles 
occasioned by tubular ridges which contain an abundance of resin- 
ous matter ; these ridges disappear on the older branches, and the 
bark becomes cracked and scaly. Leaves spreading, three in each 
whorl, strap-shaped, straight, entire, with a fine sharp point; 
channelled and glaucous above ; convex, keeled, and dark green, 
beneath ; the margins sometimes roughish. Flowers axillary, 
sessile, small; the sterile ones (fig. 1.) discharging a copious cloud 
of yellow pollen ; fertile ones (fig, 5.) green, on scaly stalks ; these 
are succeeded by roundish berries, which continue on the bush two 
years, and are first green, but, when ripe, are of a dark purple or 
blackish-blue colour, covered with a bloom. Each berry contains 
three seeds or nuts (see fig. 7.) and is marked at the top with three 
raised dots, and a 3-forked groove. 
In a wild state this is usually a low shrub, but when cultivated it will attain 
the height of 10 or more feet ; and Mr. Loudon, in his excellent Aboretum et 
Fruticetum Britannicum, records a tree of this species at Wardour Castle, 
which is 30 feet high, and is supposed to be the largest in England. The 
Juniper is obnoxious to the growth of grass, none, in general, being found to 
grow under it ; but it is said, that the Arena pratensis, or Meadow Oat- grass, 
will in turn destroy it. The wood is hard and durable, is finely veined, of a 
yellowish-brown colour, and very aromatic; and from its beauty, and the high 
polish it will take, it is employed for walking-sticks, cups, and various articles of 
turnery, and also for veneering, &c. It makes excellent fuel, and is used in 
Scotland and Sweden for smoking hams. The bark is made by the Laplanders 
into ropes. The berries are spicy and stomachic, and are esteemed in medicine 
as being stimulating and diuretic, their properties depending on an essential oil 
which they contain ; when boiled they yield a considerable quantity of sugar; 
and Linn/eus states, that such a decoction, when fermented, forms a common 
drink in Sweden ; they are, however, now principally used in making gin, which 
is simply a spirit distilled from corn, and flavoured by an infusion of these berries, 
but oil of turpentine is too often substituted for them, which, though it nearly 
resembles them in flavour, has none of their virtues. Horses, sheep, and goats 
are said to eat the Juniper, and various mountain birds feed on the berries. 
Podisoma Juniperi communis, Fr. is sometimes parasitical on the living 
branches; and Hysterium Juniperi, Grev. on the dead leaves of this species. — 
Juniperus nana, Sm. Engl. FI. is considered by many authors as a prostrate 
variety of J. communis. 
The Natural Order Conifers is composed of trees or shrubs, 
which abound in resin. Their leaves are strap-shaped, spear- 
shaped, or needle-shaped. Their flowers monoecious or dioecious ; 
with the sterile florets arranged on a deciduous catkin about a com- 
mon rachis ; and the fertile ones usually in cones, sometimes soli- 
tary. The ovules are upright, and naked, sometimes seated in an 
envelope, which in Taxus becomes succulent. The nuts are either 
solitary and naked, or enclosed within the hardened scales of a 
woody cone. Embryo with from 2 to 10 cotyledons. — The British 
genera are Pinus, t. 389. ; Taxus, t. 222. ; and Juniperus, t. 431. 
