8 WEST AMERICAN OAKS. 



Habitat. Common in western California, chiefly in the maritime portions and 

 south of the Bay of San Francisco; rare in the northern counties. Nee, the discoverer 

 and author of the species, in the beginning of the century, gave Monterey and Nootka as 

 the localities whence he had obtained it ; but the habitat last named must be erroneous. 

 In the southern part of the State, perhaps especially on the Island of Santa Cruz, this 

 tree attains its greatest dimensions, growing taller and exhibiting a more rounded head, 

 with a less horizontal spread of branches. 



Remarks. The wood of this species is compact, hard and of great strength ; but the 

 shortness of the trunks and flexuosity of the large main branches render it unfit for saw- 

 ing into boards ; it however furnishes fuel of the best quality. 



Like the rest of our evergreen oaks, this occurs, in some situations, in the form of a 

 low shrub, fruiting as abundantly as in its common arboreal development. These variations 

 in size only, hardly seem to merit separate varietal names. 



On an elevated and open plateau of the Island of Santa Cruz, I observed, in 1885, a 

 well grown tree of this species, in which all the flowers were borne on rigidly erect, stout, 

 spike-like peduncles, each flower seeming to have been perfect, and the usual pendulous 

 staminate aments entirely absent; so that the youug acorns were all spicate. Specimens of 

 this anomaly have been distributed among various herbaria. 



Owing to its maritime habitat, this was the first West-American oak to become 

 known in Europe; and some authors have supposed that it was in cultivation long before 

 the days of the Spanish botanist. Nee. Figure 3 of plate 196 of Plukenet, date 1691, was 

 cited by Willdenow, doubtfully, as representing this oak; and other authors, even down 

 to Alphonse De Candolle, in the seventeenth volume of the Prodromus (1864) have followed 

 him. The figure referred to, I should say, represents very distinctly Ilex opaca ; and this 

 opinion is expressed with a mark of doubt, on the plate, in my copy of Plukenet, in 

 the handwriting of Sprengel. But there is a figure in Plukenet which, to my eye, clearly 

 seems to represent Quercus agrifolia^ and that is figure i of plate 197. I would suggest 

 that the error was in the naming of the figures, and that the phrase ' Ilex folio Agrifolii 

 Americana^ forte Agria^ s. Agrifolia glandifera Auguillarse," should be transfered from 

 figure 3, plate 196, to figure i, plate 197. 



Of later illustrations of the species that in Sitgreave's Report is the best, exhibiting 

 the real aspect of the well developed leaves and the true size and shape of the acorns. 

 Hooker's figure (Icones Plantarum 377) represents a branch from a youug tree with small 

 leaves; and the acorns, not one-third grown, are described as if mature. The plate in Nut- 

 tail's Sylva is good as to the foliage ; poor as to the acorns. Dr. Kellogg's drawing, from 

 a branch in leaf and flower, is the only one which fairly represents that profusion of 

 staminate flowers which marks the species. 



