November 2, 1 89 1.] THE TROPICAL AQRICULTURIST. 305 
THE BERMUDA JUNIPER. 
The principal tree of the Bermuda flora is the 
Juniper, which covers the islands and makes tliecon- 
Rpicuons feature of their vegetation. A few other 
trees grow naturally on these islands, and sevend 
others have been cai-ried to them l>y man and have 
now become more or less firmly ostahlishcd. No tree 
but the Juniper, however, makes much show on the 
islands, which, from a distance, seem to be completely 
covered with it. 
This Juniper has been gi’owing on Bermuda fora 
long time, ^’he wood, in the condition of lignite, 
was found at the depth of fifty feet below low-water 
mark during tho dredgin^jj operations undertaken by 
the British Government in connection with tlio build- 
ing of tho Bermuda dry-dock. Subsidence of land is 
slow unlos.^ it is the result of some violent catastrophe, 
like an earthquake, and the fact that this Juniper 
grew on ground which is now far below tho surface 
of the ocean is conclusivo evidence that it has 
occenpiod these islands for a period so long that the 
niind of man, accustomed to measure time by 
years or by centuries, cannot form a clear notion 
of its immensity. 
How did the Juniper first get to Bermuda ? By 
what process did this tree, which is unlike other trees 
of its kind, first appear on these miiuito islands re- 
mote from all other land, and mised from tho bed 
of the ocean by the patient toil of insects, long after 
the noighlxjuring continent bad nHsumed very nearly 
its present axpect ? These arc questions whi<'h pre- 
sent themaolves to the student of nature as he sails 
into the harbour of Hamilton and sees tlie low islands 
about him everywhere clothed with this peculiar tree. 
It was not a case of separate creation, for the idea 
of the old philosophers, that plants and animals were 
created as they now’ appear in the different parts 
of tiie world wliere they occur, is no longer tenable. 
Man certainly did not bring the Juniper to Bermuda, 
for it is not quite four hundred yonrs yet since man 
first saw these islands ; and it is not improbable that 
trees are still standing which wore grow’ing when .Tuan 
Bermudez sighted the islands wliich Oviedo, tho fir.st 
naturalist to wTito on the New World, and a passen- 
ger with Bermudez on his ship “ La Garza,” described 
as “ the most remote of ail the inlandH yet found in the 
world.” 
Fifty years ago these questions would not have been 
easy to answer. Now the light w’hioli Darw’in and 
Hooker and Wallace aiidotlier naturalists, working on 
thelineslaid down by Darwin, havo thrown on tho origin 
of insular lioras makes it easy to find a simple and, 
probably, a correct solution of tho presence of the 
Juniper on the Berjuuda islands. There is a Juniper 
m North America growing in nearly all parts of tho 
continent, from Canada to Biorida, and from Cape Cod 
to Vmicouvor’s Island; this is our so-called Ked Cedar 
{Junipems Vh'yiniana)^ a troc which, in all important 
respects, is very similar to the licrmuda tree. It is 
a well-known fact that several of our birds are very 
fond of tho berries of tho Rod Cedar and devour them 
in largo quantities. To this is duo tho fact that this 
tree is so generally scattered and multiplied through 
the country, as birds void tho hard stone-liko seeds 
Without injuring their vitality, and so spread them far 
n-nd wide. There is evidence enough that our Rod 
Cedar was ^-owing on this continent long before Ber- 
niuda rose above the surface of the ocean; and a bird, 
with his crop full of Cedar-berries, may iiave been 
blown off from the mainland and found a’ resting-place 
on tho then barren coral rocks, wliere tlio soena ho 
had brought found conditions which favored their ger- 
mination. Our continental birds, in several spocies, 
now visit Bermuda every year in considerable nuni- 
bors. and tlushabit must have had its ongin in accident. 
Tho Red Cedar onco ostablishod in Bermuda, it is easy 
to i magino that tho climate and soil conditions of its 
new environment would gradually change its appear- 
aiice, just as all plants are gradually modified by the 
lufluonces of thou’ surroundings; and that in time, after 
the lapse of countless years, that it would take on its 
present appearance and stand for what naturalists call 
a species, that is. a modified or differentiated form of 
801110 other form or species. And, after all, tho differ- 
ences wliich distinguish tlie continental Juniper from 
its insular descendant are not very great. The bran- 
ches of the i.sland tree have grown stouter and tougher 
through thoirlong struggles against the ocean gales; 
the roots have learned the secret of holding on to bare 
rocks or of nenotratiiig deep into their interstices. 
Tho foliage lias lost its dark green tints and is now 
a pale bluc-gi-ay. The loaves arc blunter and are 
furnished on tho back with a gland orresiuduct. Tho 
fruit is somewhat larger, and the heartwood is not so 
bright a red and is rather loss fragrant than that of 
llie Red Cedar. 
An interesting thing about the Bermuda Cedar is its 
ability to grow apparently equally well in different 
situations. It flourishes on the dry porous limestone- 
hills and gi-ows as freely on the bracKisli swamp-lands 
which occur in some parts of the islands. It is not 
nmisualto find trees of a wide geographical range, and 
theroforo subject to different climate surroundings, 
vyhich seek to adapt themselves to them by selecting 
situations whicli in one rogi<)n oi'e at the Hoa-lev(^ 
and in others are at the Uip of high mountains. Alany 
conifers which grow at tho north at tho sea-level 
are found in the south only at considei’ablc elevations 
above tlm Ocean; and the Red Cedar itself, which 
grows at tho north on high dry uplands, inhabits, 
in Florida, swamps which are inundated during a 
considerable pai’t of the year, and in tlie dry climate 
of the western part of the continent occurs only at 
high elevations. But tho Bermuda Cedar grows as 
well in one placo as it does in another, althotigh 
climatic conditions do not, of course, differ percep- 
tibly in different parts of this small group of islands. 
Largo individuals are no longer common ; the axo 
of the wood-cutter and tho ship-builder long ago swept 
them away. Here and thero a venerable tiumk may 
still be found, but among tho large trees still growing 
on the island very few probably are much more than 
a centiury old or are largo enough to possess any great 
commercial value. Formerly the wood was much used 
in ahip-lmilding ; and it is ‘interesting to note that 
Honrv May, an KngHsh sailor, who wiis wrecked on 
the Bernindii Islands in and who afterward print- 
ed the fiwt account of them, o.scapod with his 
companions to the banks of Newfoundland in a vessel 
which they were able to make from the Cedar-wood, 
lliis same wood, twenty-seven years later, furnished 
tho material from which Admiral Sir Goorgo 
Somer.s, who the year before bad been wrecked 
while in command of the “Sea Adventure” on the 
islands, constructed the vessel which carried him to 
the relief of the infant colony of Virginia, and in 
which his body was afterward home back to his 
native laud. Boauliful and very lasting furniture, 
too, was onco made on tho islands from tho Cedar- 
wood, and old cedar chests and cabinets 200 years old 
and more ore still held as heirlooms by the descen- 
dants of some old Bermuda families wlio still live in 
houses finished with this wood, which grows with 
age rich and dark in color like old mahogany. 
Two portraits of Bermuda Cedars are printed in this 
issue. That on page 271 represents tho stem of a very 
old tree standing in ilio Dov’onshiro churchyard close 
by the ivy-covered ])ari8h church, which resembles in 
architecture ami surrouiidiugs one of the little churches 
of the older Devousliire. The tree, W’hicli recalls one 
of those venerable Yew’s of England, hoary with ago, 
aud fanuliar inhabitants of many an English churchyard, 
probably led to the selection of this particular spot as 
a place of worship. Tlie tree must nave been a very 
old and largo one when the little ehm-ch was built ; 
it may well have been standing when human eyes 
rested on theso islands for the first time, and probably 
it boa changed very little in tho last 2()0 years. Tho 
diameter of tho trunk is now fifty-nino inches, and the 
height of the tree is some forty feet. Only two larger 
specimons are now known to exist. ® 
Tho second view repiescnts the tree as it grows in 
tho inoUt black soil of tjie Devonshire marshes, a large 
tract of ground covered with Cedars of large size and 
springing from a dense undergrowth of Wax Myrtle 
