156 . PACIFIC STATES FLORAL CONGRESS. 



coverers and describers of species; in some instances, brief biographies 

 are presented. 



The writer, although he has explored the Pacific slope for many 

 years, collecting specimens and studying trees, was not fortunate 

 enough to be the very first botanist to find an unknown oak; hence, he 

 is all the more at liberty to write of the fortunate immortals whose 

 names are commemorated by a dozen of our magnificent or other- 

 wise interesting western oaks. 



CONSPECTUS. 

 Genus Quercus (THE OAKS). 



Monoecious trees or shrubs of northern temperate and warm regions, of 

 about 300 known species, especially abundant in eastern Asia and in Mexico. 

 Wood mostly hard and durable. Leaves alternate, simple, pinnate-veined, 

 usually broad and flat. Fruit a scaly, thickened cup sustaining a solitary, 

 one-celled nut the acorn. Staminate flowers in slender aments, pendulous 

 (erect in one species) bracts caducous. Pistillate flowers solitary or scat- 

 tered, consisting of an ovary with 5 to 8 styles or sessile stigmas; ovules six, 

 but only one is fertilized, becoming the thick, fleshy, two-lobed seed filling 

 the nut, the rudiments of the five abortive ovules remaining near the base, or 

 along the side, or prolonged to the apex of the seed. 



WHITE OAKS. 



A. Bark pale or light-colored, wood nearly white; stamens 6-9, stigmas sessile or 

 nearly so; acorns mostly soft-shelled, seeds edible; abortive ovules basal or rarely 

 lateral; 16 species. 

 I. Maturation annual; nut glabrous within (except Q. Emoryi); abortive ovules 



basal. 



(a) Leaves falling in autumn (except Q. Sadleriana). 

 * Leaves yellow-green and large. 



(1) Lyrate or sinuate-pinnatified. Acorns large. 



Leaves oblong or obovate, deeply ] o bed, usually stellate-pubes- 

 cent above, pale and pubescent below; nut conical elon- 

 gated, 1} to 2 inches long. Great Valley Oak 



1. Q. lobata. 



Leaves obovate or oblong, coarsely pinnatified; green and lus- 

 trous above, branchlets thick; buds large and very hairy; 

 nut oval or oblong, 1 to \\ inches long. Pacific Post Oak. 



2. Q. Garry ana. 

 Leaves obovate or oblong-lanceolate, 3 to 6 inches long, lobed or 



pinnatified and shining above, pubescent below; branch- 

 lets and buds tomentose; nut 1 to 1\ inches long. Gambel 

 Oak 3. q. Gombclii. 



