lamb: the moreh oak 



657 



USES OF SEVERINIA 



The Severinia is a handsome shrub, readily propa- 

 gated from cuttings and suitable for hedges, if care 

 be taken to select for multiplication the very thorny 

 forms which are common in this 

 species. Some forms have sharp 

 spines two to three inches long. 

 Severinia has proved useful in Lou- 

 isiana for hedges. 



Experiments have shown that Sev- 

 erinia can withstand unusually large 

 amounts of salt in the soil. It may 

 prove of interest as a stock for cit- 

 rous fruits in regions having alkali in 

 the soil or having salty irrigation water 



Fig. 2. Severinia 

 buxifolia. Seed- 

 ling, showing the 

 cataphylls suc- 

 ceeded by foliage 

 leaves. The scar 

 of one of the coty- 

 ledons shows near 

 the base. Natural 

 size. 



BOTANY. — Moreh oak, a new name for Quercus morehus 

 Kellogg. 1 W. H. Lamb, Forest Service. 



The name Moreh oak is proposed as a standard common name 

 for Quercus morehus Kellogg, a tree of the Sierra Nevada foot- 

 hills and the north coast ranges of California. 



The tree is one which has presented many problems to the 

 botanist. It is most frequently regarded as a form of hybrid 

 origin, one parent being the California black oak (Quercus 

 calif ornica or Quercus kelloggii), the other the canyon live oak 

 (Quercus wislizenii) . 2 The discoverer, Dr. Albert Kellogg, called 

 the tree Abram's oak, giving it at the same time the scientific 

 name of Quercus morehus. For many years, however, the 

 meaning and derivation of the scientific name and the signifi- 

 cance of the common name were matters of much futile specula- 

 tion among botanists, and although the species was described 



1 Published with the permission of the Secretary of Agriculture. 



2 Greene, E. L. Illustrations of West American oaks from drawings by the 

 late Albert Kellogg, M.D., pi. 2. 1889. Sargent, C. S. Manual of the trees of 

 North America, p. 255. 1905. Jepson, W. L., Silua of California. Memoirs of 

 the University of California, 2 : 46-^9. 1910. 



