The Oaks 277 



months. The flowers appear during the spring and sometimes sparingly during 

 the rest of the year, in the axils of leaves of the season or of the previous year, 

 in erect, hairy catkins 7 to 10 cm. long; the staminate catkins consist of 

 crowded, 3-flowered clusters, with ovate hairy bracts, the hairy perianth has 5 

 sharp, triangular lobes; stamens 10, their filaments elongated and slender; anthers 

 small, notched; the abortive ovary is small and hairy. The pistillate flowers are 

 borne near the base of the upper catkins, soHtary in the axils of sharp, hairy 

 bracts; the perianth is 6-lobed, hairy; ovary ovoid, hairy, incompletely 3-celled; 

 styles 3, elongated and sHghtly spreading, Hght green; there is a staminode at the 

 base of each lobe of the perianth with a slender red exserted filament and an 

 abortive anther. The fruit ripens during the second season, borne on stout 

 hairy peduncles 12 to 18 mm. long, soHtary or two together; the nut is ovoid, 

 sharp-pointed, 1.5 to 3 cm. long, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. in diameter, scurfy when young, 

 smooth and brown when ripe; shell hard, hairy within, enclosing the thick, red- 

 brown seed; cotyledons hght yellow and bitter; involucre saucer-shaped, shal- 

 low, brown hairy within, bearing many hnear, spreading or recurved hght brown 

 hairy scales, the fruit much resembling that of the eastern Bur oak. 



The wood is hard, strong, close-grained, brittle, Ught reddish brown; its specific 

 gravity is about 0.68. It is Kttle used except as fuel, for which it is highly valued. 

 The bark is rich in tannin and preferred to all other Pacific slope oaks. The 

 tree sprouts readily from stumps and thus renews itself like the Chestnut tree of 

 the eastern States. It is of much interest as combining many of the characters 

 of both chestnuts and oaks. 



Pasania consists of about 100 species of trees and shrubs, mostly of the 

 Malay region and southern Asia. A shrubby species, with smaller entire leaves, 

 occurs in the higher mountainous regions of California adjacent to the range 

 of the Tan bark oak, with which it was formerly confused. The generic name 

 is adapted from the Javanese name for one of the species, the type being P. 

 spicata (Smith) Orsted. 



V. THE OAKS 



GENUS QUERCUS [TOURNEFORT] LINN.EUS 



UERCUS comprises about 250 species of trees or shrubs of the northern 

 hemisphere, reaching to or somewhat beyond the equator in the high 

 mountains of Central and South America, its center of distribution 

 being the mountains of Central America and Mexico; there are very 

 few species in Europe. Numerous fossil forms of the genus have been found 

 in both hemispheres. 



Economically these trees are of great value as furnishing some of the most 

 important and most generally used hard wood timber. The barks of many are 

 rich in tannin and of great importance in tanning, as are also the galls caused 



