Juniper.... Protection.
Reading edition
The Juniper has been the favourite of Superstition. The ancients consecrated the shrub to the Furies. The smoke of its green roots was the incense which they offered in preference to the infernal gods; and they burned its berries during funerals to ban malign influences. In some parts of Europe, the peasant still believes that the perfume of Juniper berries purifies the air, and drives evil spirits from his humble cot. The Juniper is made to signify protection, on account of the defensive qualities ascribed to it by superstition, and the shelter its drooping branches afford to small animals which are hard pressed by the hunters.
I have found out a gift for my fair; I have found where the wood-pigeons breed; But let me that plunder forbear, She will say, ’twas a barbarous deed. “For he ne’er could be true,” she averred, “Who could rob a poor bird of its young;” And I loved her the more, when I heard Such tenderness fall from her tongue. Shenstone.