DWARF JUNIPER (Juniperus cammunis, Linn.). 5 to 30 feet. Sprawling shrub, or, rarely, a small tree, with irregular, lobed trunk, and open head of uneven, erect branches, ending in slim, 3-angled twigs. Bark thin, loose, scaly, brownish red. Wood hard, close, pale brown, durable. Leaves set in whorls of 3 at wide angle from twig, boat-shaped, the white lining being the upper, the shining, dark green outside, the lower surface; tips spiny; I to z inch long; bronze-green in winter.
Flowers axillary, separate on same tree, both kinds cone-like. Fruit a blue berry, with pale bloom, ripe at end of third sum mer, mealy, sweet, resinous, with 3 seeds. Used to flavor gin. Dist.: Waste land, Greenland to Alaskan coast; south to Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and along the Rocky Mountains to Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.