36 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



power to resist drouth. Its " ricli golden tresses " of flowers yield an 

 abundance of honey. It proves, however, to be a short-lived tree in 

 this its adopted land. Its phenominally rapid growth of the iirst few 

 years proves to be in a measure " a beautiful disappointment," for its 

 limbs easily break witli the force of the winds and it commences its 

 decline. This fault known, however, is easily met and the tree occu- 

 pies a promising place of value. 



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 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, disap- 

 pearing 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) involucral cup or covering ; seed albumenless, with an anatrapous, 

 often edible, embryo ; cotyledons thick and fleshy. 



Order is represented by trees and shrubs of wide geographic distribution. 



GENUS QUERCUS, LINNAEUS. 



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, two 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.) 



214. QUERCUS DOUGLASII, H. & A. 



BLUE OAK. CALIFORNIA ROCK OAK. 

 Ger., Blamiche; Fr., CheneHeu; Sp., RMe azul. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : Leaves extremely variable in form but alike in being 

 deciduous, of a distinctly blue-green color, pubescent at least beneath, and they 

 are from 1 to 3 in. long, mostly oblong or obovate, from acute to rounded or 

 subcordate at base, acute or rounded at apex, sinuate-dentate with acute rigid 

 spinescent teeth or sinuate-lobed with rounded lobes and sinuses, or sometimes 

 entire, reticulate-veined ; petioles stout, about ^ in. long ; leaf buds ^ to ^ in. 

 long, pubescent ; branchlets stout, hoary tomentose. Flowers appear in early 

 spring, the staminate in hairy anients with linear-lanceolate bracts ; calyx with 

 hairy lasiniate lobes, pale yellow ; stamens with slender filaments and yellow 

 exserted anthers, pistillate flowers hoary tomentose. Fruit acorns maturing the 

 first year, sessile or nearly so, arranged singly or in pairs, cup light green, shallow, 

 thin, with small acute thin pointed scales and enveloping only the base of the 

 nut, which is f to 1 in. long and from | to nearly f in. broad, oval to long-oblong 

 and often ventricose with narrow base, shining green at first but drying to a 

 dark brown. 



The specific name, douglasii, commemorates the name of its discoverer, the 

 indefatigable botanical explorer Mr David Douglas. 



This beautiful oak seldom attains a greater height than 75 ft. (25 m.), 

 or its trunk a greater thickness than 3 or 4 ft. (1 m.). Its trunk is 



