34 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA 



CUPULIFERiE 



scarlet 



hirsute with 

 nearly half g 

 bracts about 



or orange-color before falling in the autumn. 



The stir 



dark bro 



wn 



pale hairs, and caducous. The flowers appear in May and June 



The sterile flowers are borne in slender hirsute aments in the axils of ovate acute 



& 



the hirsute yellow calyx, which is divided 



five or 



rather shorter than the stamens : the anthers are emarginate, yellow, and glabrous 



six acute lobes 

 The briofht red 



pistillate flowers are sessile or short-stalked, and solitary or in elongated few-flowered spikes, with ovate 



ded involucral scales coated with soft pale tomentum^ and acute calyx-lobes 



The 



pedunculate and rijDen in August and Septembe 



ally oval, broad 



d 



r 



unded or sometimes narrowed and acute at the apex, which is covered 



1 



at the base, obtuse 

 sty pubescence, and 



usually about three quarters of an inch long and five eighths of an inch broad ; frequently 



does not exceed a quarter of an inch in length, and 



ally it is more than an inch long ; when 



fully ripe it is at first dark chestnut-brown or nearly black, and ultimately 



o 



ht chestnut-b 



the cups are saucer-shaped, cup-shaped, or rarely turbinate, and although occasionally shallow, generally 

 inclose about a third of the nut ; they are light brown and pubescent on the i 



on the outer surface with pale tomentum, and 



1 



hened below by 



iner surface, coated 

 ckened and more or 



less united 



th 



ounded on the back and narrowed, except at the base of the cup 



into short free scarious pointed tips, and are thin and minute near the rim of the cup ; or sometimes th 

 lower scales are only slightly thickened and are free, with long loose tips 



Querciis Gamhelii is distributed from the eastern slopes of the 



where it finds 



home 



Rocky Mountains of Colorado, 

 divide between the waters of the Platte and Arkansas 



E 



at elevations of f 



six to seven thousand feet above the 



of the 



westward to the 



Wahsatch Mountains of Utah, and southward over the mountain ranges and high plateaus to the mouth 

 of the Pecos River in Texas, the Charlestown Mountains in southwestern Nevada,^ and the mountains of 



lion on the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, where it usually grows as a low 



thern Sonor 



Com 



shrub 



ally 



in their sheltered 



the size of 



a 



small 



more abundant 



ds to 



southern, and especially in southwestern Colorado, where it is the only Oak and often ascei 

 elevations of nearly ten thousand feet, it frequently covers hillsides with nearly uninterrupted thickets 



thousands of 



d 



sually 



ly 



or tliree feet hisrli 



& 



it is 



7 



abundant on the 



mountains of northern New Mexico and western Texas 



the common Oak of the Colorado plateau 



and of southern Utah and northern Arizona^ where it is scattered irregularly through the great forest 

 of Phms j^onderosciy sometimes in broad clumps and often as isolated trees^ probably attaining its 

 larsfest size in northern Arizona at elevations of from six to seven thousand feet above the level of the 

 sea ; it is scattered through the open forests of Pinus mono2jhyUay which clothe the mountain ranges 

 of southern Nevada, and high up on those of southern New Mexico and Arizona it forms a narrow 

 fringe above the groves of evergreen Oaks which enHven their lower slopes and just below the Nut 

 Pines which usually crown their summits. 



Three quite distinct forms of this species can be distinguished 



Shrubby plants bearing leaves of the first and second of these 



by the shape and coloring of the leaves, although they are con- forms are mixed together indiscriminately on the mountains of 

 nected by innumerable varieties and all three of them sometimes southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, and can be readily 



grow together in areas only a few yards square. 



distinguished from a considerable distance by the color of the 



The leaves of the first form (Plate ccclxvi. f. 1) are usually foliage. Plants of the third form I have seen only on the hills 

 obovate in outline with few broad and rounded or emarginate lobes, near the city of Durango in southwestern California ; they were 



and are dark green and lustrous on the upper surface. 



shrubs without fruit, and grew in clumps among those of the two 



In the second form (Quercus vcnustula) the leaves (Plate ccclxvii. other forms. Arborescent individuals usually produce large dark 

 f. 3) are oblong-lanceolate, sinuately lobed, usually smaller and green deeply lobed leaves, especially on the Colorado plateau, and 



bright yellow-green on the upper surface. 



this appears to be the only form on the mountains of southern New 



In the third form the leaves (Plate ccclxvii. f. 2) are oblong, Mexico and Arizona. 



broad at the abruptly rounded or cordate base, divided deeply or 



2 Merriam, North American Fauna^ No. 7, 333 (Death Valley 



slightly by narrow sinuses into broad rounded entire lobes, and Exped, ii.). — Coville, Contrib. JJ, S, Nat Herb, iv. 197 (BoL Death 



dull green on the upper surface. 



Valley Exped,). 



