JUNIN, an interior department of central Peru, bounded N. by Huanuco, E. by Loreto and Cuzco, S. by Huancavelica, and W. by Lima and Ancachs. Pop. (1906 estimate), 305,700. It lies wholly within the Andean zone and has an area of 23,353 sq. m. It is rich in minerals, including silver, copper, mercury, bismuth, molybdenum, lead and coal. The Huallaga and Mantaro rivers have their sources in this department, the latter in Lake Junin, or Chanchaycocha, 13,230 ft. above sea-level. The capital of Junin is Cerro de Pasco, and its two principal towns are Jauja and Tarma (pop., 1906, about 12,000 and 5000 respectively). JUNIPER. The junipers, of which there are twenty-five or more species, are evergreen bushy shrubs or low columnar trees, with a more or less aromatic odour, inhabiting the whole of the cold and temperate northern hemisphere, but attaining their maximum development in the Mediterranean region, the North Atlantic islands, and the eastern United States. The leaves are usually articulated at the base, spreading, sharp-pointed and needle-like in form, destitute of oil-glands, and arranged in alternating whorls of three; but in some the leaves are minute and scale-like, closely adhering to the branches, the apex only being free, and furnished with an oil-gland on the back. Sometimes the same plant produces both kinds of leaves on different branches, or the young plants produce acicular leaves, while those of the older plants are squamiform. The male and female flowers are usually produced on separate plants. The male flowers are developed at the ends of short lateral branches, are rounded or oblong in form, and consist of several antheriferous scales in two or three rows, each scale bearing three or six almost spherical pollen-sacs on its under side. The female flower is a small bud-like cone situated at the apex of a small branch, and consists of two or three whorls of two or three scales. The scales of the upper or middle series each bear one or two erect ovules. The mature cone is fleshy, with the succulent scales fused together and forming the fruit-like structure known to the older botanists as the _galbulus_, or berry of the juniper. The berries are red or purple in colour, varying in size from that of a pea to a nut. They thus differ considerably from the cones of other members of the order Coniferae, of _Gymnosperms_ (q.v.), to which the junipers belong. The seeds are usually three in number, sometimes fewer (1), rarely more (8), and have the surface near the middle or base marked with large glands containing oil. The genus occurs in a fossil state, four species having been described from rocks of Tertiary age.