Engelmann's Oak 



321 



becoming smooth, red-brown to light gray. The buds are oblong, blunt, brown, 

 hairy at first. The leaves are oblong to ovate or oblanceolate, 3 to 6 cm. long, 

 blunt at the apex, entire or seldom wavy or spiny-toothed on the revolute mar- 

 gin; they are firm, bright bluish and shining with prominently rounded midrib 

 above, pale and finely reticulate 

 veined beneath, persisting during 

 the winter and turning yellow before 

 falling at about the time the new 

 leaves unfold. The leaf-stalk is 

 stout, about 3 mm. long. The 

 flowers appear in March or April 

 with the unfolding leaves, the stami- 

 nate in few slender, woolly catkins 



about 4 cm. long, their calyx of 4 or ^^^' ^'5" 



5 sharp-pointed, yellow lobes; stamens exserted, their anthers oval, notched, smooth 

 and yellow. The pistillate flowers are sessile or on short hair}^ stalks; involucre 

 woolly; styles sHghtly spreading and light red. The fruit, ripening in the autumn 

 of the first season, is sessile; mit ellipsoid or somewhat ovoid, 12 to 15 mm. long, 

 brown and shining, its shell very thin; seed dark purple and very astringent; cup 

 hemispheric, i to 1.5 cm. across, embracing about one third of the nut, covered 

 by very hairy, corky-thickened, brownish margined scales. 



The wood is hard, strong but brittle, very dark brown and heavy. It checks 

 badly on dr}ang, is hard to cut or spHt, and is only used for fuel. 



Blue Oak. 



39. ENGELMANN'S OAK Quercus Engelmanni Greene 



Fig. 276. Engelmann's Oak, 



This evergreen oak occurs over a 

 limited area of southwestern CaH- 

 fomia, from Kern county to San Diego 

 county, where it attains a maximum 

 height of 18 meters, with a trunk di- 

 ameter of 9 dm. It is also known as 

 Live oak and Evergreen white oak. 



The branches are stout, the lower 

 horizontally spreading, forming a broad 

 tree. The bark is up to 5 cm, thick, 

 deeply but narrowly fissured into broad 

 ridges, with flaky close brownish gray 

 scales. The twigs are stout, stiff and 

 hair}', soon becoming quite smooth, 

 reddish brown and finally brown or 

 gray. The leaves are oblong to obovate, 



