De I. VNER VEW D Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope

176 FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE.
however, they may be carried far by water washing the surface soil and debris.
The seed-leaves, 2 to 6, are usually needle-like, and the seedling leaves which
follow these are similar in form; but as the tree grows older these are replaced
by the short, close, scale-like leaves or by the lance-needle-shaped leaves of
adults.
Junipers are small or, at most, only medium-sized trees. Their trunks are
too short, small and poorly formed for saw-timber, though the wood possesses
qualities which would otherwise adapt it for this use. They are largely used
for post timber, fuel, and minor manufactures. Some of them are of the greatest
value for fuel in localities where no other trees grow. Forestally junipers
are highly important. Their adaptability to dry, barren slopes and exposed
situations renders them exceedingly useful in maintaining and extending tree
growth where few if any other trees will thrive.
Five tree junipers inhabit the Pacific region. One extends from eastern
North America across the continent to the Pacific northwest. The ranges of the
others lie wholly or in part within the Pacific States. Junipers are of ancient
origin. Remains of them in Tertiary rocks show that they inhabited Europe
ages ago.
Dwarf Juniper.
Juniperus communis Linneus.
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS.
Dwarf juniper is more widely distributed than any other tree inhabiting the
northern half of the globe. It is one of the most singular of our trees in that
throughout its world-wide range it attains tree size only in a few counties of
southern Illinois, where it is from 15 to nearly 25 feet high and from 6 to 8
inches in diameter. Elsewhere on this continent it is a shrub under 5 feet in
height, with numerous slender, half-prostrate stems forming continuous tangled
masses from 5 to 10 yards across. It is said to sometimes become a tree from 30
to 40 feet high in north Germany, where it grows extensively also as a low shrub.
As a tree it has a very unsymmetrical trunk with conspicuous rounded ridges
and intervening grooves at and near the ground. It is clear of branches for only
a few feet, and the crown, narrow and very open, has short, slender branches
trending upward. The bark is less than one-eighth of an inch thick, deep chocolate
brown, tinged with red, and composed of loosely attached, extremely thin
scales.
The dark, lustrous green, keenly pointed, needle-like, or narrow, lance-shaped
leaves (fig. 68), chalky white above, clearly distinguish this juniper from all
of the other native species. The leaves spread widely from the triangular
branchlets in groups of 3 at rather regular intervals, those of each season's
growth persisting for five or six years. Sharp-pointed leaves, similarly arranged
but much shorter and more slender, are found on young junipers of other
species. A careful examination, however, will at once distinguish such leaves
from the wider, more spreading leaves of dwarf juniper. The " berries " (fig.
68) are mature at the end of the second summer, when they are very dark
blue-almost black, coated with a whitish bloom. The top of the " berry " is
conspicuously marked by three blunt projections (points of the ovules). The
soft flesh of the fruit is dry, resinous-aromatic, and sweet, containing from 2
to 3 (sometimes 1) hard, bony seeds. The "berries" are greedily eaten by
birds and by some mammals, otherwise they may remain on the branches until
the following winter or spring.
Wood, pale, yellowish brown; heavy, rather tough, very fine-grained, and exceedingly
durable. The tree is too small to be of any commercial value. It has