Flora Medica

dividing into 4 valves.PINACEJE, OR CONIFERS.Yields the resinous substance called Sandarachfrom which is prepared the pounce employed in rendering parchment fitto write upon.JUNIPERUS.Flowers dioecious, rarely monoecious, upon different branches.$ Catkins axillary or subterminal, globose, very small. ? Catkinsaxillary, ovate, imbricated, with bracts at the base. Scales3-6, united at the base, and containing 1-3 ovules; which areerect, perforated at the apex, and bottle-shaped. Fruit a galbulus,consisting of the scales become succulent, and consolidatedinto a drupe-like body. Seeds triquetrous.1178. J. communis Linn. sp. pi. 1470. E, Bot. t. 1100.Woodv. t. 95. Bigelow med. Bot. iii. t. 44. London Arb. etfrut. 2489. Europe, north of Asia, North America. (Juniper.)A shrub, never attaining the height of a tree. Tips of the branchessmooth and angular. Leaves in threes, linear-acerose, sharply mucronate,shining green on their lower surface, but with a broad glaucousline through the centre of the upper they are always ;resupinate, andturn their upper surface toward the ground. Barren flowers in smallaxillary aments, with roundish, acute, stipitate scales, inclosing severalanthers. Fertile flowers on a separate shrub, having a small, 3-partedinvolucre growing to the scales, which are 3 in number. Fruit fleshy,roundish-oblong, berried, of a dark purplish colour, formed of the confluentsucculent scales, marked with 3 prominences or vesicles at top,and containing 3 seeds; it requires two seasons to arrive at maturity.The fruits, called Juniper berries, are analogous in operation to otherterebinthinate substances. They promote the secretion of urine, inlarge quantities produce irritation of the bladder and heat in the urinarypassages, are sudorific, carminative, and are supposed to stimulatethe uterus. They are sometimes used as a stimulating diuretic in manyforms of dropsy ;Mr. Alexander says that the oil, in doses of 4 drops,is the most powerful of all diuretics. They are also administered inleucorrhcea, gonorrhoea, gleet, &c.1179. J. virginiana Linn. sp. pi. 1471. Bigelow med. hot.iii. t. 45. Loudon Arb. et frut. Britt. 2495. Barren soils inthe United States. (Red Cedar.)When fully grown a middling-sized tree. Trunk straight and decreasingrapidly from the ground, giving off many horizontal branches ;its surface generally unequal, and disfigured by knots, and the crevicesand protuberances they occasion. Small twigs covered with minute,densely imbricated leaves, which continue to increase in size as thebranches grow,till they are broken up and confounded with the roughbark ;these leaves are fleshy, ovate, concave, rigidly acute, marked witha small depressed gland on the middle of their outer side, growing inpairs, which are united at base to each other, and to the pairs aboveand below them. A singular variety sometimes appears in the youngshoots, especially those which issue from the base of the trees; thisconsists in an elongation of the leaves to 5 or 6 times their usual556