40 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



pollen only about half the size of that of the other oaks; stigmas linear. Fruit 

 acorns maturing the second year, solitary or clustered and sessile or with short 

 peduncles; nut oval or oblong, 1-1^ in. long, acute or obtuse and often obscurely 

 triangular at apex, with thick shell tomentose without and within, seated on a very 

 shallow, or even quite fiat, cup f-1^ in. broad, silky tomentose inside and outside, 

 with long linear-subulate rigid and spreading or recurved scales. 



(The specific name, densiflora, is the Latin for densely flowered, and descriptive of 

 the peculiar catkins of this species.) 



This beautiful and symmetrical oak sometimes attains the height of 80 

 ft. (24 m.) with a trunk 3-4 ft. (1m) in diameter invested with a gray- 

 ish-brown bark which, on small trunks, is of a light-gray color and quite 

 smooth, but finally becomes rough with rather firmly adherent longitu- 

 dinal ridges. Though it very rarely surpasses the dimensions above 

 given, it generally is much smaller, and sometimes but a shrub from 5-7 

 ft. in height. A very interesting tree to botanists as it is intermediate in 

 many respects between the other Oaks and the Chestnuts. 



HABITAT. From southwestern Oregon southward along the Coast 

 Eanges to the Santa Lucia Mountains, abundant and reaching its great- 

 est development in the Eedwood region. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood heavy, hard, strong, compact, perisha- 

 ble in contact with the soil, of close grain, easily worked and susceptible 

 of a smooth polish, with few large medullary rays and many open ducts 

 arranged in rows between them. It is of a light reddish-brown color 

 with abundant reddish- white sap-wood. Specific Gravity, 0.6827; Per- 

 centage of Ashy 1.49; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.6725; Coeffi- 

 cient of Elasticity, 96347 ; Modulus of Rupture, 946 ; Resistance to 

 Longitudinal Pressure, 475 ; Resistance to Indentation, 224; Weight of 

 a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 42.55. 



USES. The bark of this tree is very rich in tannin, and is considered 

 the most valuable of the Pacific Coast trees for tanning purposes. It is 

 extensively gathered for that use, and we have seen immense numbers 

 of the prostrate trunks deprived of their bark and wasteful ly 1-ft by the 

 bark-peelers to rot on the ground. The wood is extensively used for fuel. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. The abundant tannin found in the bark is 

 available in medicine where an astringent or tonic effect is desirable, 

 especially in the form of a wash or external application. 



GENUS CASTANOPSIS, A. DECANDOLLE. 



Leaves mostly coriaceous and entire. Staminate flowers in slender axillary panicled 

 aments, upon the young shoots, with regularly 5-6-lobed perianth ; stamens twice as 

 many as the petals. Pistillate flowers 1-3, with scaly sessile involucre at the base of the 

 aments; lobes of perianth 6, in two rows ; pistil with usually 3 styles and 3~celled 

 ovary, each cell containing at its lower angle amphithropotis ovules. Fruit an edible 

 nut maturing the second year, invested 1-2 together, with a subglobose involucre 

 densely covered with stout branched prickles, and finally irregularly dehiscent; seeds 

 solitary and cotyledons plano-convex, thick. 



An interesting genus intermediate between Quercus and Castanea, represented by 

 few species of trees and shrubs mostly of Eastern Asia and adjacent islands. The 

 name is derived from nddravor, chestnut, and o'ipiS, appearance. 



