Juniper (given name) "Benny & Joon" (where the Joon character was short for Juniper), Pamela Dean's novel "Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary", and the Donovan song, "Jennifer Juniper". The Juniper tree's name is derived from the Latin word juniperus. In Latin, juniperus is combination of the word "junio," which means young, and "parere," to produce, hence youth producing, or evergreen. Ginepro (Italian for Juniper), Ginevra (Italian variant form of Juniper), and Ginny are other names that also refer to the Juniper tree. Juniper is used to flavour the alcoholic spirit gin. The traditional drink jenever and its French name "genièvre" are names for juniper.
Gin in popularity by the early 20th century. The invention and development of the column still (1826 and 1831) made the distillation of neutral spirits practical, thus enabling the creation of the "London dry" style that evolved later in the 19th century. In tropical British colonies gin was used to mask the bitter flavour of quinine, which was the only effective anti-malarial compound. Quinine was dissolved in carbonated water to form tonic water; the resulting cocktail is gin and tonic, although modern tonic water contains only a trace of quinine as a flavouring. Gin is a common base spirit for many