Spec. Plant. Willd. iv. 851. Cl. 22. Ord. 13. Dioecia Monadelphia. Nat. ord. Coniferae. G. 1841. Male. Amentum ovate. Calyx a scale. Corolla none.

Stamens three.-Female. Calyx three-parted. Petals three.

1 It was cultivated by Gerarde in 1596.

Styles three. Berry three-sided, irregular, with the three tubercles of the calyx. Species 6. J. Sabina. Savine. Med. Bot. 3d edit. 10. t.5. Species 10. J. cotnmnnis. Common Juniper. Med. Bot. 3d edit.

13. t. 6. Smith, Flora Brit. 1085. Eng. Bot. 1130. Species 14. J. Lycia.

1. Juniperus Sabina.1

Officinal. Sabina, Lond. Juniperi Sabinae folia, Edin.Dub.

Savine-leaves.

Syn. Savinier (F.), Sadebaum, Sevenbaum ( G.), Sevenboom(Dutch), Svebora (Dan.), Savina (I.), Sabina (S).

This shrub is a native of Siberia and Tartaryand the Levant; but it has been long cultivated in our gardens, flowering in April, May, and June. It seldom rises above three feet in height in this country, but, in Tartary, it attains fifteen feet; is covered with a brown bark, and divided into numerous branches, which are completely invested with very small, erect, firm, opposite, pointed leaves of a bright green colour, that lie over one another, and terminate the branches in sharp points, giving the whole shrub a very lively aspect. The male and female flowers are on different plants. The male catkin consists of three opposite flowers placed in a triple row, and a tenth flower at the end: and at the base of each flower is a broad scale fixed laterally to a columnar pedicel. There are filaments in the terminal flower only; tapering and united at the base, with simple anthers, which are sessile in the lateral flowers. In the female flowers, the calyx is three permanent scales; the petals are stiff, sharp, and also permanent; and the germen supports three styles with simple stigmas.

The fruit is a spurious fleshy berry of a blackish purple colour; marked with tubercles, the vestiges of the calyx and petals, and containing three small hard seeds.

Qualities.-The leaves and tops of savine have a stronp-heavy, disagreeable odour, and a bitter, hot taste, with a considerable degree of acrimony. These qualities depend on an essential oil, which is obtained in considerable quantity by distillation with water. Both water and alcohol extract the active principles of savine; and Lewis found that, "on inspissating the spirituous tincture, there remains an extract consisting of two distinct substances; of which one is yellow, unctuous or oily, bitterish, and very pungent; the other black, resinous, tenacious, less pungent, and subastringent."2

Dioscorulis. There are two varities of savine; the variety β is our plant.

2 Mat. Medica.

Medical properties and uses.-Savine is a powerful stimulant, possessing diaphoretic, emmenagogue, and anthelmintic properties. It has certainly a considerable effect on the uterine system; but, on account of its stimulating properties, is suited to those cases only of amenorrhoea which are unattended by fever, and in which the circulation is languid. In plethoric habits its use should be preceded by repeated bleedings 1; and at all times its internal exhibition requires caution. It has been given in gout, and in worm cases also, but it is seldom prescribed. As an external local stimulant or escharotic, the dried leaves in powder are applied to warts, flabby ulcers, and carious bones; and the expressed juice diluted, or an infusion of the leaves, as a lotion to gangrenous sores, scabies, and tinea capitis; or mixed with lard and wax as an issue-ointment. The dose of the powdered leaves is from grs. v. to grs. xv. administered two or three times a day.

Officinal preparations.- Oleum volatile Juniperi Sabinae, E. D. Extractum Sabinae, D. Ceratum Sabinae, L.

2. Juniperus communis.2

Officinal. Juniperi fructus et cacumina, Lond. Juniperi communis baccae, Edin. Juniperus; baccae, cacumina, Dub. Juniper-berries.

Syn. Genevrier ordinaire (F.), Wachholderbeeren (G.), Sevenboom (Dutch), Sevebom (Dan.), Ginepro (I.), Enebro (S.), Zimbro (Portug.), Caw-caw-ynew muna ( Cree Indian).

The common juniper is indigenous, growing on heaths and ehalky hills, and flowering in May. It is a branching, rigid, smooth, evergreen shrub: when planted in a good soil, it rises to fifteen feet in height. The leaves are very numerous, narrow, entire, sharply-pointed, channelled, of a glaucous colour on the upper surface, and sessile, standing in ternaries. The catkins are axillary, sessile, solitary, ovate, small, and furnished with bractes: the male flowers yellow at first, and afterwards brown, with great abundance of pollen; the female smaller, and of a yellowish-green colour. The fruit is globular, in colour blackish-purple with a glaucous bloom, composed of the scales of the amentum, which become fleshy and coalesce. The seeds are three, and angular.3

The fruit requires to remain two years on the tree before it is fully ripe. The greater quantity of juniper berries, as the fruit is termed, used in Britain, is brought from Germany, Holland, and Italy. Some are brought from Greece, but they are the fruit of I. oxycedrus.4 The Italian berries are less shrivelled, and have a fresher and more beautiful bloom upon them than the German, and are therefore generally preferred. They are imported in bags.1

1 Home, Clinical Experiments, 387.

Dioscoridis.

3 The resinous substance known by the name of Sandarach, which is brought from Morocco, exudes from the stem of the juniper in warm climates.

4 Sibthorp.

Qualities.-Juniper-berries have a peculiar aromatic odour, and a sweetish, pungent, bitterish taste, when chewed. In distillation with water they yield a volatile, terebinthinate oil of a greenish colour, on which their virtues depend.2 Both water and alcohol extract their active properties. Their principal constituents are mucus, saccharine matter, and volatile oil. Tromdorff analysed the berries, and procured of volatile oil 10 parts, wax 40 + resin 100 + sugar, acetate and malate of lime 338 +mucus 70 +fibres, and some other saline matters 350 - 908. The quantity of the volatile oil in this analysis was only 1 per cent.; but the usual quantity obtained is 2 1/2 per cent. According to Votter and Dann 2 llbs, of the fresh fruit yield 3 xxvj. of clear oil. Every part of the plant yields the same oil.

Medical properties and uses. - Juniper-berries are stomachic and diuretic. Like oil of turpentine, they impart the odour of violets to the urine. They have been long known as a remedy in hydropic affections; but they cannot be depended on alone, although they form an excellent adjunct to foxglove and squill. The tops are also used. They have been recommended in scorbutic and cutaneous affections; and Rosen-stein asserts that a strong decoction of them soon clears the hands in scabies. The berries are sometimes given in substance, triturated with sugar or some neutral salt: but the best form is that of infusion, made with iij. of the berries bruised, and Oj. of boiling water. The dose of the first preparation is from Эj. to 3 ss.; that of the infusion a teacupful every three or four hours.

Officinal preparations.- Oleum Juniperi, L. E. D. Spiritus Ju-niperi compositus, L. E. D.

3. Juniperus Lycia.

The Edinburgh College regards this species of juniper as the source of olibanum, but Dr. Sibthorp asserts that this is not the case. The Indian olibanum, that found in the shops, is the produce of the Boswellia serrata. (See B. serrata).