OAKS OF PACIFIC SLOPE. 151 



OAKS OF PACIFIC SLOPE. 



BY J. G. LEMMON. 



The oak family is one of the highest, most modified, and extensively 

 ilistributed lines of development in the vegetable kingdom. They are 

 denizens of the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, the chief 

 source of hard-wood timber, of tannin, and of cork, the pride and 

 favorite grove-maker of all civilized nations, the venerated trees under 

 which the Druids worshiped and which bore on their "heaven-deformed 

 limbs" the all-healing mistletoe. The oaks appeared on the earth, the 

 geologists tell us, in the late cretaceous and early tertiary periods, 

 that is, three long ages after the advent of the larger but less highly 

 organized cone-bearers, and nearly coeval with the graceful, heat- 

 loving palm family. 



The oaks were early distributed thoughout eastern Asia, southern 

 and central Europe, and in North America, the greater portion of the 

 latter inhabiting a region the center of which was far northward 

 of the present headquarters of the family. In this age they are found 

 on the high plateau of Central America and southern Mexico, where 

 are now nourishing scores of species. From thence several extend 

 northward, inhabiting Mexico and the United States, diminishing in 

 number of species to six in Canada and one in British Columbia. 



Oaks are recognized at sight, whether living plants of the present 

 age or vestiges of early species and found as fossils in the rock strata 

 of the earth, by the peculiar, thick, cup-like receptacle of the fruit hold- 

 ing a solitary, top-shaped nut the acorn. A brief description of oaks 

 might be, "Plants that bear acorns." 



VITALITY OF THE OAKS. 



The vitality of the oak is very great, even under adverse circum- 

 stances. The aboriginal inhabitants, whether by carelessness or design, 

 used to burn off annually the whole herbage from their hunting- 

 grounds. While this treatment killed off the tender, highly-organized 

 plants, the oaks broadened out their root-caps underground, and from 

 their borders sent up year after year strong sprouts, that, when forest- 

 Imrning ceased, eighty to one hundred years ago, have grown to become 

 vigorous trees. Also, the acorns germinating in the shade of trees 

 like the cone-bearers, are kept alive from year to year by a few leaves. 

 while large roots are being developed, and at length, strong, aggres- 

 sive saplings bearing broad, absorbing leaves take possession of the 



