JUNIPER. Juniperus. This immense genus of evergreens comprises varieties from creepers and trailers to the largest trees of the forest, and are fonnd in every portion of the earth, from the Torrid zone to the Arctic circle. Some species are valued for their lumber, others for the valu able resins, and others again for the fruit used in flavoring liquors, and in medicine. Among the true junipers are the common juniper, J. coin Maid S, a low, trailing shrub, the fruit of which is used for flavoring gin, and the oil is used in medicine. The Irish juniper is one of the most beautiful varieties of the common juniper. Erect in habit, dense and compact in growth, it may be used where formal growth is desired. The Swedish juniper is more hardy than the previous variety. It is light yellowish-green in its foliage, upright in growth, and, seldom seen more than ten to eighteen feet high, though trees fifty feet in height are said to be found in the forest of Fontainbleau, France. The weeping juniper,
J. rigs le, is another beautiful species, a native of the mountains of China and Japan. It is not hardy in the West, but where it will stand it is fine grafted into the common red cedar of the country. The red cedar, Juniperus Virginia nu, is found in the United States from the Gulf of Mexico to the northern boundary on the great lakes. Its height is seldom more than forty to fifty feet, and with age becomes very striking. It is most valuable in its timber, being valued for its lasting qualities and the odor of the wood. One of the more ornamental forms of the Red cedar, Aid/trots venusta, as illustrated on page 534, is one of the many exquisite forms this genus of plants assumes. It is a rapid grower, hardy, erect in habit, of beautiful silvery foliage, and one of the most ornamental of the upright varieties.