The Oaks 



short, broad, hairy. Flowers with half-grown leaves, February 

 to April, staminate in hairy, yellowish catkins; pistillate, solitary 

 and sessile, as a rule; stigmas broad. Acorns i J to 2 J inches long, 

 annual, sessile (rarely stalked), solitary or in pairs, conical, elon- 

 gated, with sharp, horny, hairy tip; cup shallow, tomentose, 

 with thick scales that become finer toward fringed border; kernel, 

 sweet, edible. Preferred habitat, rich, sandy loam. Distribution, 

 valleys in California west of Sierra Nevada Mountains. Forms 

 open groves, never forests. Uses: Splendid feature of natural 

 scenery, but never successfully cultivated outside of its range. 

 Wood useless except for fuel. Fruit used as food by Indians. 



It is a happy circumstance for Californians and for all people 

 who visit "the Land of the Setting Sun" that this valley oak 

 is scorned by all lumbermen. The tree is practically worthless for 

 timber, therefore gigantic individual trees stand scattered o'- 

 grouped in the spacious valleys of western California, helping 

 to make a landscape that cannot be duplicated this side of England. 

 Indeed, Vancouver, journeying around the world in 1792, was 

 astounded at the park-like Santa Clara Valley, set round with 

 mountains, diversified with hills and intervales, covered with a 

 carpet of verdure, and adorned with majestic oaks. Writing 

 home of this landscape untouched by the hand of man, he says; 

 "It required only to be adorned with the neat habitations of an 

 industrious people to produce a scene not inferior to the most 

 studied efl'ect of taste in the disposal of grounds." 



The California white oak is the largest and most graceful of 

 the Western oaks. Its branches end in long shoots that are 

 pendulous like those of the weeping willow. The trunk branches 

 near the ground and rises and spreads out like a great fan. A 

 British elm often has the same habit our American elm, some- 

 times. The dome is broader even than that of our Eastern white 

 oak. The twigs are willowy at first, but there is a surprising 

 tortuousness acquired with added years. The limbs are gnarled 

 in the most complex way. "Picturesqueness gone mad" well 

 characterises the expression of the tree in its bare winter aspect. 



"The Sir Joseph Hooker Oak," 100 feet high, 7 feet in diam- 

 eter of trunk and 1 50 feet in spread of dome, on General Bidwell's 

 farm in Butte County, California, was named after the great 

 English botanist on the occasion of his visit with Asa Gray in 1877. 



The tree is always broader than it is high, and bears a pro- 



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