A tree, occasionally 40°—50° high, with a stout much-lobed and buttressed trunk sometimes 3° in diameter, short stout branches forming an open very irregular head, and slender branchlets covered after the falling of the leaves with light red-brown bark spreading freely into thin loose scales; more often a much branched shrub sometimes only a few feet high. Bark ashy gray, divided into irregularly connected ridges, separating into long narrow persistent shreddy scales. Wood heavy, slightly fragrant, light reddish brown, with nearly white sapwood and eccentric layers of annual growth; largely used for fencing and fuel. The fruit is ground into flour and baked by the Indians, who use the thin strips of fibrous bark in making saddles, breechcloths, and sleeping-mats.
Distribution. Along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains from the valley of the Platte River, Wyoming (near Alcova, Natrona County) and the divide between the Platte and Arkansas rivers in Colorado; western Oklahoma (near Kenton, Cimarron County, common) and western Texas; on the Colorado plateau, northern Arizona; over the mountain ranges of southwestern Wyoming, Nevada, southern New Mexico and Arizona, and southward into northern Mexico; often covering, with the Nut Pine, in southern Colorado and Utah, and in northern and central New Mexico and Arizona, great areas of rolling hills 6000°—7000° above the sea-level; reaching its largest size in northern Arizona.
9. [Juniperus mexicana] Spreng. Cedar. Rock Cedar.
Juniperus sabinoides Nees.
Leaves usually opposite or ternate, thickened and keeled on the back, obtuse or acute at apex, mostly without glands, denticulately fringed, rather more than 1/16′ long, dark blue-green, on vigorous young shoots and seedling plants lanceolate, long-pointed, rigid, ¼′—½′ long. Flowers: male with 12—18 stamens, their connectives ovoid, obtuse, or slightly cuspidate: scales of the female flower ovate, acute, and spreading, very conspicuous when the fruit is half grown, becoming obliterated at its maturity. Fruit short-oblong to subglobose, ¼′—½′ in diameter, dark blue, with a thin skin covered with a glaucous bloom, sweet resinous flesh, and 1 or 2 seeds; seeds ovoid, acute, slightly ridged, rarely tuberculate, dark chestnut-brown, with a small hilum, a thin outer seed-coat, a membranaceous dark brown inner coat, and 2 cotyledons.
A tree, occasionally 100° but generally not more than 20°—30° high, with a short or elongated slightly lobed trunk seldom exceeding a foot in diameter, small spreading branches forming a wide round-topped open and irregular or a narrow pyramidal head, slender sharply 4-angled branchlets becoming terete after the falling of the leaves, light reddish brown or ashy gray, with smooth or slightly scaly bark; often a shrub, with numerous spreading stems. Bark on old trees ¼′—½′ thick, brown tinged with red, and divided into long narrow slightly attached scales persistent for many years and clothing the trunk with a loose thatch-like covering. Wood light, hard, not strong, slightly fragrant, brown streaked with red; largely used for fencing, fuel, telegraph-poles, and railway-ties.
Distribution. From Brazos County over the low limestone hills of western and southern Texas, and southward into Mexico; forming great thickets and growing to its largest size on the San Bernardo River; much smaller farther westward, and usually shrubby at the limits of vegetation on the high mountains of central Mexico.
10. [Juniperus virginiana] L. Red Cedar. Savin.
