JUJUBE.—The real Jujube-tree is Zizyphus Jujuba, a native of the East Indies, nearly allied to the Paliurus, or Christ’s Thorn: it bears similar yellow flowers and fruit about the size of a middling plum. It is sweet and mealy, and highly esteemed by the natives of the countries to which the tree is indigenous. The lozenges called Jujubes are made from the fruit of Zizyphus vulgaris, which ripens abundantly in the neighbourhood of Paris.
July Flower, the Stock Gilliflower.—See [Stock].
JUNIPER.—The ancients called the Juniper generally by the name of Cedar, although Pliny distinguishes the two. Thus Virgil is supposed to have alluded to the Juniper in the line in his ‘Georgic’:—
“Disce et odoratam stabulis accendere Cedrum.”
“But learn to burn within your sheltering rooms
Sweet Juniper.”
The Juniper was consecrated to the Furies. The smoke of its green roots was the incense which the ancients deemed most acceptable to the infernal gods; and they burned its berries during funerals to ban malign influences.——The Juniper has always been looked upon as a protective tree; its powerful odour is stated to defeat the keen scent of the hound, and the hunted hare at the last extremity will seek and find a safe retreat in the cover of its branches. It sheltered the prophet Elijah from the persecutions of King Ahab, and we read in 1 Kings xix., 4, that the prophet lay and slept “under a Juniper-tree.”——According to a tradition common in Italy, the Virgin Mary fled for safety with the infant Jesus, pursued by the relentless soldiers of King Herod. Whilst on their road, the Brooms and the Chick-Peas began to rustle and crackle, and by this noise betrayed the fugitives. The Flax bristled up. Happily for her, Mary was near a Juniper: the hospitable tree opened it branches as arms, and enclosed the Virgin and Child within their folds, affording them a secure hiding-place. Then the Virgin uttered a malediction against the Brooms and the Chick-Peas, and ever since that day they have always rustled and crackled. The Holy Mother pardoned the Flax its weakness, and gave to the Juniper her blessing: on that account, in Italy, branches of Juniper are hung up on Christmas Day in stables and cattle sheds, just as in England, France, and Switzerland, Holly is employed as a decoration.——In Thibet, they burn Juniper-wood as incense in a gigantic altar, with an aperture at the top, which is called Song-boom, and bears some resemblance to a limekiln.——The old notion of the ancients that the burning of Juniper-wood expelled evil spirits from houses evidently led to some superstitious practices in this country in later times. Thus we find Bishop Hall writing:—
“And with glasse stills, and sticks of Juniper,
Raise the black spright that burns not with the fire.”
In some parts of Scotland, during the prevalence of an epidemic, certain mysterious ceremonies are enacted, in which the burning of Juniper-wood plays an important part.——-In Germany and Italy, the Juniper is the object of a superstitious reverence on account of its supposed property of dispersing evil spirits. According to Herr Weber, in some parts of Italy, holes or fissures in houses are brushed over with Juniper-boughs to prevent evil spirits introducing sickness; in other parts, boughs of Juniper are suspended before doorways, under the extraordinary belief that witches who see the Juniper are seized with an irresistible mania to count all its small leaves, which, however, are so numerous that they are sure to make a mistake in counting, and, becoming impatient, go away for fear of being surprised and recognised.——In Waldeck, Germany, when infants fall ill, their parents place in a bunch of Juniper some bread and wool, in order to induce bad spirits to eat, to spin, and so forget the poor little suffering babe. In Germany, a certain Frau Wachholder is held to be the personification and the presiding spirit of the Juniper, who is invoked in order that thieves may be compelled to give up their ill-gotten spoils: this invocation takes place with certain superstitious ceremonies beneath the shadow of a Juniper, a branch of which is bent to the earth. In Germany, also, the Juniper, like the Holly, is believed to drive away from houses and stables, spells and witchcraft of all description, and specially to cast out from cows and horses the monsters which are sometimes believed mysteriously to haunt them. For a similar reason, in Germany, in order to strengthen horses, and to render them tractable and quiet, they administer to them on three successive Sundays before sunrise, three handfuls of salt, and seventy-two Juniper-berries. Prof. De Gubernatis tells us that from a rare Italian book which he possesses, he finds that in Bologna it is customary on Christmas Eve to distribute in most houses branches of Juniper; and moreover, that the best authorities have proved the omnipotence of Juniper against serpents and venomous beasts, who by their bites represent sins; and that the Juniper furnished the wood for the Cross of the Saviour and protected the Prophet Elijah.——In Tuscany, the Juniper receives a benediction in church on Palm Sunday.——In Venetia, Juniper is burnt to purify the air, recalling the ancient Roman custom of burning it instead of incense on the altars.——In Norway and Sweden, the floors are strewed with the tops of Juniper, which diffuse a pleasant fragrance.——Evelyn says that Juniper-berries afford “one of the most universal remedies in the world to our crazy forester,” and he wonders that Virgil should condemn the shadow of such a beneficial tree, but suspects him misreported as having written the following lines:—