AMERICAN FOREST TREES 237 



construction. Its toughness fits it for ax, hammer, and other handles. 

 It is far inferior to hickory, but on the Pacific coast it can be had much 

 cheaper. Its strength and durability make it one of the best western 

 woods for insulator pins for telephone and telegraph lines. It is 

 worked into saddle trees and stirrups. 



The scarcity of woods on the Pacific coast suitable for tight cooper- 

 age gives this oak a rather important place, because barrels and casks 

 made of it hold alcoholic liquors. Available statistics do not show the 

 quantity of staves produced from this wood, but it is known to be used 

 for staves in Oregon. 



Much Pacific post oak is employed as rough lumber for various 

 purposes. Railroads buy crossties, hewed or sawed from small trunks, 

 and country bridges are occasionally floored with thick planks which 

 wear well and offer great resistance to decay. 



The quantity of this oak growing in the Northwest is not known. 

 It falls far below some of the softwoods of the same region, and the area 

 on which it is found in commercial amounts is not large. It is holding its 

 ground fairly well. Trees bear full crops of acorns frequently, and if 

 they fall on damp humus they germinate and grow. The seedlings 

 imitate the eastern white oak, and send tap roots deep into the ground, 

 and are then prepared for fortune or adversity. It happens, however, 

 that trees which bear the most bountiful crops of acorns do not stand in 

 forests where the ground is damp and humus abundant, but on more 

 open ground on grass covered slopes. Acorns which fall on sod seldom 

 germinate, and consequently few seedlings are to be seen in such situa- 

 tions. Open-grown trees are poorly suited for lumber, on account of 

 many limbs low on the trunks, but they grow large amounts of cordwood. 

 CALIFORNIA SCRUB OAK (Quercus dumosa) has been a puzzle to botanists, and 

 a hopeless enigma to laymen. Some would split the species into no fewer than three 

 species and three varieties, basing distinctions on forms of leaves and acorns and other 

 botanical differences ; but Sudworth, after a prolonged study of this matter, recognized 

 only one species and one variety, but admitted that "California scrub oak unquestion- 

 ably varies more than all other oaks in the form and size of its leaves and acorns." 

 He thought it might possibly be equalled in that respect by Quercus undulaia of the 

 Rocky Mountains. Some of the leaves of California scrub oak are three-fourths of an 

 inch long and half an inch wide, while others may be four inches long. The edges of 

 some leaves are as briery as the leaves of holly, others are comparatively smooth. 

 The shapes and sizes of acorns vary as much as the leaves. Some are long and slender, 

 others short and stocky. This peculiar oak is found only in California, but it shows 

 a disposition to advance as far as possible into the sea, for it has gained a foothold on 

 islands lying off the California coast, and it there finds its most acceptable habitat. 

 It reaches its largest size in sheltered canyons on the islands, and attains a height of 

 twenty or twenty-five feet, and a diameter of a foot or less. It is not large enough 

 to win favor with lumbermen but in its scrubby form it is abundant in many localities. 

 1 1 is scattered over several thousand square miles, from nearly sea level up to 7,000 



