136. QUEKCUS GAKRYANA OREGON OAK. 37 



526; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 324; Resistance to Indentation, 

 93; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 30.41. 



USES. Like the eastern Sycamore the western species seems to have 

 been a long neglected wood, on account of the difficulty of working it 

 and its liability to warp, but cut " quartering," i. e. radially, it possesses 

 rare and beautiful properties, giving it a peculiar value for furniture, 

 interior finishing, etc., which are now becoming appreciated and giving 

 the wood a well-deserved popularity. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES are not known of this species. 



ORDER CUPULIFERJE : OAK FAMILY. 



Leaves alternate, simple, straight-veined ; the stipules, forming the bud-scales, 

 deciduous. Flowers monoecious, apetalous. Sterile flowers in clustered or racemed 

 catkins (or in simple clusters in the Beech); calyx regular or scale-like; stamens 5-20. 

 Fertile flowers solitary, clustered or spiked, and furnished with an involucre which 

 forms a cup or covering to the nut ; calyx-tube adherent to the ovary, its teeth min- 

 ute and crowning the summit ; ovary 2-7-celled with 1-2 pendulous ovules in each 

 cell, but all of the cells and ovules, except one, disappearing before maturity ; stig- 

 mas sessile. Fruits, 1-celled, 1-seeded nut, solitary or several together and partly 

 or wholly covered by the scaly (in some cases echinate) involucral cup or covering; 

 seed albumenless, with an anatropous, often edible, embyro ; cotyledons thick and 

 fleshy. 



Represented by both trees and shrubs. 



GENUS QUERCUS, L. 



Flowers greenish or yellowish. Sterile flowers in loose, slender, naked catkins, 

 which spring singly or several together from axillary buds; calyx 2-8-parted or cleft; 

 stamens 3-12 ; anthers 2-celled. Fertile flowers with ovary nearly 3-celled and 6- 

 ovuled, 2 of the cells and 5 of the ovules being abortive ; stigma 3-lobed ; involucre 

 developing into a hard, scaly cup around the base of the nut or acorn, which is 

 1-celled, 1-seeded. 



(The ancient Latin name for the Oak supposed to be from the Celtic quer, fine, and 

 cuez, tree.) 



136. QUERCUS GARRYANA, DOUGL. 



OREGON OAK, MOUNTAIN WHITE OAK. 

 Ger., Oregonische Eiche ; Fr., Chene de Oregon; Sp., Roble de Oregon. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves deciduous, 4-6 in. long, oval or obovate in out- 

 line, coarsely and irregularly pinnately lobed, with narrow sinuses and broad rounded 

 and mostly obtusely pointed and entire or sometimes sparingly undulate-toothed 

 lobes ; dull-green above, paler, strongly reticulate-veined and pubescent beneath ; 

 petioles |-1 in. in length, these with the thick branchlets and large winter-buds 

 tomentose. Flowers as described for the genus ; calyx-lobes 7-8. linear-lanceolate 

 ciliate ; stamens 6-8 ; pistil with subsessile stigma and abortive ovules at the base of 

 the seed. Fruit acorns maturing the first season, sessile or nearly so, 1-1 in. long 

 oblong-ovoid or obovoid, obtuse and with very shallow small cups, having small 

 lanceolate slightly pubescent closely appressed scales tuberculate at base. 



A tree sometimes attaining the height of 100 ft. (30 m. ) with open top 

 of strong wide-spreading branches and a trunk 3-4 ft. (1 m.) in diameter, 



