MOUNTAIN JUNIPER (_Juniperus sabinoides_) is a Texas tree, occupying a range southward and westward of the Colorado river. It has several local names, rock cedar being a favorite. This name is due to the tree’s habit of growing on rocky ridges and among ledges where soil is scarce. It is called juniper cedar, and juniper. Under the most favorable circumstances the tree may attain a height of 100 feet and a diameter of two, but it nearly always grows where conditions are adverse, and its size and form change to conform to circumstances. It is often small and ragged. Its lead-colored bark is apt to attract attention on account of its woeful appearance, hanging in strings and tatters which persistently cling to the trunk in spite of whipping winds. When the tree is cut for fuel, or for any other purpose, the ragged bark is occasionally pulled off and is tied in bales or bundles to be sold for kindling. When the mountain juniper is taken from its native wilds and planted where environments are different, it sometimes assumes fantastic forms. It has been planted for ornament on the low, flat coast in the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico, and though it lives and grows, it often takes on a peculiar appearance. The trunks resemble twisted and interwoven bundles of lead-colored vines, buttressed, fluted, and gnarled. The branches lose their upright position, and hang in careless abandon, with drooping festoons. In winter the wind whips most of the foliage from them. The leaves become brittle and may be easily brushed from the twigs by a stroke of the hand. Some of the planted trees have trunks so deeply creased as to be divided in two separate stems. This very nearly happens with some of the wild trees among the western mountains. The sapwood of mountain juniper is very thin. The average tree cannot be profitably cut into lumber of the usual dimensions because of the odd-shaped and irregular trunk. It lends itself more economically to the manufacture of articles made up of small pieces. Some of the wood is extremely beautiful, having the color and figure of French walnut; but there is great difference in the figure and color, and the wood of one tree is not a sure guide to what another may be. Boards a foot wide, or even less, may show several figures and colors. Some pieces suggest variegated marble; others are like plain red cedar; some are light red in color, others have a tinge of blue. It varies greatly in hardness, even in the same tree. Part of it may be soft and brittle enough for lead pencils; another part may be hard and tough. Clothes chests have been made of it, of most peculiar appearance--resembling crazy quilts of subdued colors. Sometimes the heartwood and the sapwood are inextricably mixed, both being found in all parts of the trunk from the heart out. On the whole, the tree can never have much importance as a source of lumber, but it is a most interesting member of the cedar group.