BOTANY. 



31 



its conical form and great length, is readily distinguishable from that of any other species with 

 which I am familiar. From their abundance and edible nature they form a very important 

 part of the subsistence of the Digger Indians, and are collected and stored up by them for winter 

 use ; piles of many bushels being frequently seen in their rancherias. 



Qoercus Densiflora. Hook. & Am. The California chestnut oak. 



Q. Densiflora. Hook. & Am. Bot. Beechey,p. 391. 



Q. Echinacea. Hook. & Am. Bot. Whipple's Rep., p. 137. 



Fig. 8. 

 Fig. 8. Branch with leaves and fruit of Q. densiflora, half natural size. 



Description. — An evergreen tree of small size ; leaves lanceolate, oblong ; smooth or dentate- 

 serrate ; the younger ones tomentose beneath, becoming smooth. Male flowers in elongated, 

 densely flowered aments ; fruit sessile, generally clustered ; cup densely covered with spreading 

 or recurved elongated scales; acorn ovoid, sub-trigonal acute, 1\ inch long, | inch broad; acute, 

 testa very woody and hard, of a light yellowish-brown color. 



I have been quite unable to distinguish between Q. densiflora, described by Hooker and Arnott, 

 (1. c.,) and Q. echinacea of Dr. Torrey. There is a perfect correspondence in their descriptions, 

 and my specimens agree with both except in the minor characters specified in the description 

 given. 



The resemblance to a castanea which this oak exhibits is, as mentioned by Hook. & Am., very 

 striking. The leaf is very like that of a chestnut, and the male aments, at the base of which 

 a cluster of acorns grow, the bristling spines of the capsules and the sub-trigonal hard shelled 

 acorn, closely resemble the flowers and fruit of Castanea chrysophylla, the chinquapin of 



