Plate XXIX. 

 QUBRCUS MACDONALDI ELEGANTULA, Greene. 



Remarks. This oak, named as above on page 26 preceding I now suspect to be of 

 the nature of a hybrid between Q. Engelmanni and dumosa. Upon revisiting the Temecula 

 Canon, the original station, I found not only the tree whence my own specimens were 

 taken in 1885, but several other individuals. The leaves are of much firmer texture than 

 those of Q. Macdonaldi and are perhaps hardly deciduous. As collected by me at first, 

 late in March, the twigs bore only young leaves not full-grown ; but the old leaves may 

 have fallen just as the new ones began to appear; and this is about as near as Q. Engel- 

 manni and dumosa come to being evergreen. vBoth these species abound, and that in close 

 juxtaposition, among the hills of the region named; and I have little doubt that what is 

 here figured is but a natural cross between the two. What renders this the more probable 

 is the fact that of the considerable number of specimens seen, no two seemed to be just alike, 

 either in foliage or general aspect; and it is quite of the nature of hybrid oaks in general, 

 that individuals of the same specific parentage differ greatly among themselves, some more 

 like one parent, others more resembling the other. 



The Kern County station for this oak, as given on page 26, is discredited. The neigh- 

 borhood of Tehachapi, from which the specimens are reported to have come, did not yield to 

 my search any such shrub or tree as this ; and neither Q. dumosa nor Q. Engelmanni is 

 found in that part of Kern County. The great elevation and peculiar climate render their 

 existence in that locality entirely improbable. 



