30 BOTANY. 



on both sides ; upper surface of older leaves smooth, pale green ; lower surface pubescent, 

 especially along the veins. Fruit sessile, generally solitary ; cup hemispheric, thick, covered 

 with thick tumid scales which give it a turberculated appearance ; gland long-ovoid or conical, 

 2 inches long by inch wide ; testa thin, mahogany color ; nucleus not unpalatable. 



This is the finest oak of California, and perhaps the most abundant. Its favorite habitat is 

 on the slopes of the &quot;foot hills&quot; and along the streams which traverse the valleys of that State. 

 In the foot hills and minor valleys of the Coast mountains and Sierra Nevada it grows in groups 

 or scattered as single trees over the oat-covered surface, forming the most important element in 

 those scenes of quiet beauty which so often excite the admiration of the traveller in California. 



Along the streams it forms belts of timber of varying width and density, the number and 

 size of the trees being apparently proportioned to the size of the stream and the quantity of 

 moisture derived from it. 



On the banks of the Sacramento, in a few instances, I saw this oak when considerably 

 crowded, assuming the form and closely copying the appearance, in all respects, of the white 

 oak of the east ; but, generally, both on the hills and on the plain, it inclines to form groups, 

 or open groves in which the trees assume the spreading form of Q. pedunculata in the parks of 

 the Old World. 



I think that the finest studies of trees which I have ever seen were afforded by the groups or 

 single trees of this oak in the Sacramento valley. 



The general character of this tree is pretty well represented by the accompanying plate, but 

 it is frequently still more spreading. The trunk is often six, seven, or even eight feet in 

 diameter, and covered with a thick and deeply cracked but light colored bark. At the height 

 of ten or twelve feet from the ground the trunk divides into many branches, which throw out 

 their huge arms nearly horizontally to the distance of fifty or sixty feet on either side, the 

 extreme branches in some cases coming quite down to the ground. Near Marysville I measured 

 one by no means the largest one seen of which the trunk, three feet from the ground, was 

 six feet in diameter ; the height is estimated at seventy-five feet ; the circle shaded by its 

 branches measured one hundred and twenty-five feet in diameter. 



The beauty of these oaks is frequently mentioned in my notes, from which I will make a 

 single extract, referring to those which form the belt of timber bordering Cache creek. 



&quot;This timber belt is composed of the most magnificent oaks I have ever seen. They are 

 not crowded as in our forests, but grow scattered about in groups or singly, with open grass- 

 covered glades between them ; the trunks, often seven feet in diameter, soon divide into branches, 

 which spread over an area of which the diameter is considerably greater than the height of 

 the tree. There is no under growth beneath them, and as far as the eye can reach, when 

 standing among them, an unending series of great trunks is seen rising from the lawn-like 

 surface.&quot; 



The wood of this tree, like that of most of the diciduous trees of California, is porous and 

 brittle ; resembling in its want of tenacity that of the black oak, Q tinctoria, of the east. This 

 I infer to be due to the climatal conditions under which it is found, rather than to any 

 inherent botanical peculiarity of the tree ; as from its affinity with the white oak of the eastern 

 States, if grown in the same soil and climate the wood, in all probability, would exhibit a 

 similar character. ^ 



The fruit, though having a noticeable resemblance in the color, thickness, and consistence 

 of the testa of the acorn, as well as in the character of the cup, to that of the white oak, from 



