The species of this genus are extremely variable in their leaves, which differ exceedingly on the same plant, and in the size to which the plants attain; as even the common Juniper, though generally a shrub not above three feet high, sometimes becomes a tree. In the common Juniper (_Juniperus communis_) the leaves are narrow and pointed, and they are placed in whorls, three in each, round the branches. The male and female flowers are generally on different plants, but sometimes on the same. The male catkins are sometimes at the end of the shoots, but generally they spring from the axils of the leaves. The pollen cases vary from three to six, and they are attached to the back of each scale, which may be called the stamen (see _a_ in _fig._ 100). The female catkin, when young, resembles a very small bud, and consists of three fleshy ovaries, almost hidden by the thick scales at their base. These ovaries grow together, and soon present the appearance shown, but magnified, at _c_. As they ripen, they rise out of the scales and become the fleshy strobile, _b_; and finally the spongy berry shown of its natural size at _d_, containing three seeds or nuts, each of which is flat on one side, _f_, and angular on the other, _e_, with five glandular indentations at its base. The berries are first green, but they afterwards become of a dark purple, and are covered with a fine bloom. The Juniper berries are very fragrant, and the glands in their stones contain a kind of oil. These berries when crushed are used in making gin and hollands. There are a great many species of Juniperus, but one of the most remarkable is the Red Cedar (_J. virginiana_). This is a tree forty feet or forty-five feet high. The leaves, when young, are scale-like; but when older they become loose and feathery, so that there are two kinds of leaves on the same tree. The male and female flowers are very small, and the berry is only two-seeded. The sap-wood of this tree is quite white, but the heart-wood is red, and it is used occasionally for making black-lead pencils, particularly those of the commoner kinds, though the Bermuda Juniper is preferred for the superior ones. This last species (_J. bermudiana_) is rather tender in England, and it is seldom grown in this country. Its berries are of a dark red, and they are produced at the ends of the branches; and the wood has so strong a fragrance that shavings of it are put in drawers to keep away moths. The Savin (_J. Sabina_), and several other species, have the old leaves scale-like, as well as those on the young wood. All the species have berry-like fruit, which is generally purple or dark red, and which varies principally in the number of stones or nuts that it contains. The fruit of all the Junipers is very slow in ripening, and in some of the species it remains two years on the tree. § 3. TAXINEÆ.—THE YEW TRIBE.