160. QUERCUS LOBATA CALIFORNIA WHITE OAK. 35 



Rupture, 806; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 568; Resistance 

 to Indentation, 199; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 40.61. 



USES. One of the most valuable of the woods of the Pacific Coast 

 for interior finishing and for furniture for which the figured logs occa- 

 sionally found are very beautiful and valuable. The wood is also 

 useful in ship -building and for other purposes where a strong, close- 

 grained timber is required. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. A pungent, aromatic, volatile oil distilled 

 from the leaves of this tree produces dizziness and headache when 

 inhaled, and is supposed to have a marked action upon the nervous 

 system. It is recommended for nasal catarrh and nervous headache ; 

 and its use in cerebro-spinal meningitis is said to have been followed 

 by favorable results. It is believed to possess curative properties in 

 chronic diarrhoea and colic and to relieve rheumatic pains if applied 

 externally. * 



ORDER CUPULIFERJE: OAK FAMILY. 



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

 deciduous. Flowers monoecious, apetalous. Sterile flowers in clustured or racerned 

 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 invo- 

 lucre which forms a cup or covering to the nut; calyx-tube adherent to the ovary, 

 its teeth minute 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; stigmas sessile. Fruit a 1-celled, 1-seeded nut, solitary or several 

 together and partly or wholly covered by the scaly (in some cases echinate) invo- 

 lucral cup or covering; seed albumenless, with an anatropous, often edible, 

 embryo; cotyledons thick and fleshy. 



Genus is 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 8-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. 



(Quercus is the ancient Latin name for the Oak supposed to be from the Celtic 

 quer, fine, and cuez, tree.) 



160. QUERCUS LOBATA, NEE. 

 CALIFORNIA WHITE OAK, WEEPING OAK, VALLEY OAK. 



Ger., Californische Weisseiche; Fr., Chene ~blanc de Calif ornie; Sp., 

 Roble bianco de California, Roble. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves deciduous, from 2 to 3 in. or slightly more in 

 length, oblong or obovate, rounded at apex, wedge shaped rounded or cordate at 

 base, generally deeply, though sometimes slightly, lobed, with narrow sinuses, but 

 wider near the center of the leaf, the lobes rather numerous and small, entire or 



* Sargent's Silva of North America, VII. p. 20. 



