587] 1 ENGELMANN—AMER. JUNIPERS OE SEC. SABINA. 5 
they are brown and shining upwards,, and are marked below with 
a larger or smaller, mostly bilobed, pale hilum. I cannot discover 
that the shape of the seeds, the presence or absence of the grooves 
or impressions, or the roughness of the surface, have much spe¬ 
cific value. 
The embryo of most species has two cotyledons; only in y. 
Californica I find regularly more (4-6, mostly 5) cotyledons—a 
curious repetition of a constant character of Abietimcz , and per¬ 
haps the only instance of it in Cupressinece. Marked as this 
peculiarity is, it is not accompanied by any other character 
which would justify us in separating this species generically 
from its allies. 
The geographical distribution of our Junipers is an inter¬ 
esting and, at least in regard to one of the species, an abnormal 
one. Most of the Junipers are rather local. Three species (y. 
Mexicana , ftaccida , tetragona ) are confined to the highlands 
of Mexico and one (f. Bermudiana ) to several West Indian 
Islands. Among those within our boundaries, one (y. Califor¬ 
nica) is peculiar to the coast ranges and islands of California, 
and another one (f. pachyphloea ) to the interior of Arizona and 
New Mexico, into which and into Utah a variety, of the former 
also extends. Another species, properly named J. occidentalism 
is characteristic of the whole western mountain region from West 
Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, as far as California and 
Oregon. 
Then there is the northern J. Sabina , which as well as y. 
communism of which we do not treat here, follows the laws of 
high northern, or, as it is called, circumpolar distribution, ex¬ 
tending from Maine and Nova Scotia along the great lakes and to 
British Columbia as well as through Northern Asia and Europe, 
y. com?nunis reaching down to lower latitudes than the other, 
especially in the mountain ranges. 
Thus far all our species have not deviated in their distribution 
from the well known laws of geographical botany. But one spe¬ 
cies, our common Red Cedar (y. Virginiana ), makes a remark¬ 
able exception. It is the only conifer and one of the very few 
trees* which is found east as well as west, and certainly the only 
* The others belong to the universal poplars, and may perhaps as well be classed among 
the circumpolar vegetation extending south along the mountains. 
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