ON JUNIPERUS SAB IN A. 
11 
ART. III.— ON JUNIPERUS SAB1NA. By Caleb H. Needles. 
{An Inaugural Essay.) 
Juniperus Sabina, U. S. — The savine plant has been made 
officinal in most of the Pharmacopoeias, its medicinal virtues 
have been long known, and yet it is an article very little 
used. 
BOTANICAL HISTORY. 
The Juniperus sabina belongs to the class Dioscia, Order 
Monodelphia, L., and to the Natural Family Coniferje of 
Jussieu. 
specific description. 
This shrub seldom rises above three feet in height. The flow- 
ers, which are male and female, grow on different plants. The 
male catkin consists of three opposite flowers arranged in a 
triple row, and a tenth flower at the end. At the base of each 
flower is a broad scale fixed laterally to a columnar pedicle. 
There are filaments in the terminal flower only, tapering and 
united at the base, with simple anthers, which are sessile in 
the lateral flowers. The calyx in the female flowers is 3 per- 
manent scales ; the petals are stiff, sharp, and also permanent, 
and the germen supports three styles with simple stigmas. — 
The fruit consists of a blackish purple colored berry : it is 
marked with tubercles which are the remains of the calyx and 
petals. These berries, upon examination, are found to con- 
tain three small hard seeds ; they have an unpleasant smell 
with a hot and bitter taste. 
OBSERVATIONS AND GENERAL HISTORY. 
Loudon, in his Encyclopaedia, gives a detail of this plant. 
According to his account, the word juniperus was derived 
from the Celtic, jenoperus, signifying rough, and rude, which 
