ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 231 



which become buff-colored, before any other of our deciduous oaks. The wood 

 of this tree is of a poor quality ; used for fuel only. 



17. Quercus chrysolepis, Liebm. (Drooping Live Oak.) 



The most rare of all our oaks ; it bears acorns but seldom, and even then 

 very sparingly. I have not been able to satisfy myself whether they are bian- 

 nual or not, but I am rather inclined to believe they are. Northern slopes 

 near Cloverdale ! in Anderson Valley ! aud near Forest Hill ! Tree 30-40 feet 

 high, with a rather smooth whitish bark, and mostly long, slender, drooping 

 branches ; evergreen. Of the quality of its wood I could not learn anything 

 from settlers. The tree being rare, and occupying always moist slopes along 

 gulches, it is not often cut down. 



18. Quercus densiflora, Hook. (Chestnut Oak.) 



Along the Coast Range, associated with the redwood, increasing northwards ; 

 from Santa Cruz to Mendocino City, at least, it occurs only in or close by the 

 redwoods. This tree attains rather a large height in dense woods, and is then 

 but sparingly branched. Leaves and acorns very considerable. Its wood is 

 absolutely useless ; it is very coarse grained, and like the redwood wet like a 

 sponge when cut ; it is extremely perishable. At Mendocino City log-men call 

 it Water Oak. 



19. Castanea chrysophylla, Dough (Chestnut.) 



On the Oakland hills this species is but 3-6 feet high ; blooms about the 

 fourth of July, like the Eastern Castanea vesca, and bears perfect fruit. On the 

 so-called plains at Mendocino City, however, it is a large tree, averaging from 

 50-125 feet in height, and 2-3 feet in diameter. Those trees were completely 

 covered with blossoms on the twenty-third of September, 1865; settlers say 

 they never found its fruit. Here, on the Oakland hills, it grows only on the 

 outcropping of a white friable slate, destitute of all vegetable remains ; at the 

 Mendocino plains it is found to grow on a cemented gravel, upon which the 

 water rests for some months after the rainy season. The supply of au aerial 

 moisture during the dry season is in favor of the Oakland hills, judging by the 

 lichenose vegetation of the two localities. 



20. Sequoia sempervirens, Endl. (Redwood.) 



This mighty tree belongs exclusively to the foggy regions of the Coast 

 Ranges and the underlying metamorphic sandstone, for wherever either of these 

 conditions is wanting, this tree does not exist. From the northern boundary 

 line of the State down to the head of Tomales Bay it forms a continual forest, 

 increasing in width northward. At Tomales Bay the chain is interrupted by a 

 small bed of lime-rock. The interruption extending from the lower foot-hills of 

 Tamalpais down to Belmont, is undoubtedly owing to the lowness of the hills. 

 A connecting link is found, however, on the Oakland hills. That grove of red- 

 woods, now almost entirely destroyed, affords the strongest evidences of the 

 dependency of that species on the prevalence of heavy mists. From Belmont 

 to a few miles below Santa Cruz is another narrow continuous chain, occupy- 

 ing mainly the leesides of the most western ranges and the deeper gulches east- 



