AMERICAN FOREST TREES 297 



washes and in desert mountain canyons. It is not choice as to soil but 

 will grow in loam, sand, gravel, or among rocks. It is not abundant. 



When it grows near the sea it is apt to lose its tree form and become 

 a shrub. It assumes that form on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands off 

 the coast of southern California. It grows slowly and is tenacious of 

 life. When it has once secured a foothold it hangs on with determina- 

 tion, though exposed to severe storms and inhospitable conditions. The 

 acorns do not mature until late in the autumn of their second year. They 

 are sometimes an inch and a half long, and scarcely a third of an inch 

 thick. The wood of this oak possesses some good qualities which are 

 locally appreciated by wagon makers who use it for repair work. It is 

 extensively cut for fuel, and it burns about like eastern white oak, but 

 leaves more ashes. The dry wood weighs 49 pounds per cubic foot. It 

 is considerably weaker than white oak and is less elastic. The summer- 

 wood constitutes a large part of the annual growth ring. It is very 

 porous, the rows of pores running parallel with the medullary rays. This 

 part of the wood structure is midway between that of deciduous and the 

 evergreen oaks. The medullary rays are broad but short. When exposed 

 on a tangential surface, they are from one-fourth to one-half inch long, 

 and give the wood a flecked appearance. Exposed in cross section.they 

 are from one inch to four inches in length. This applies, of course, only 

 to large rays, easily seen with the naked eye. In quarter-sawed lumber, 

 the rays have a pinkish color and glossy luster which are not pleasing. 

 This tree belongs in the class with those which are in no danger of being 

 extirpated by human agencies. It occupies land which man does not 

 need and will never want. 



MYRTLE OAK (Quercus myrtifolia) associates with the laurel oak in some parts 

 of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and closely resembles it, though it is smaller, 

 and gives little promise of ever becoming important in a commercial way. It is 

 clearly in the scrub oak class, and does not approach the dignity of even a small tree 

 in most of its range. Few specimens can be found exceeding a height of twenty feet 

 and a diameter of five or six inches. Trees approaching that size grow in western 

 Florida in the region of the Apalachicola river. Generally this oak covers dry, sandy 

 ridges and islands, and is shrubby. It forms thickets on some of the islands off 

 the coast of Alabama and Mississippi, and extends its range westward to the low, 

 southern parts of Louisiana where the dwarf trees are almost hidden by tall reeds and 

 grass. Its name refers to the leaf it bears. It is impossible that man can ever make 

 much use of this tree. 



MOREHUS OAK (Quercus morehus) can never be important in the lumber 

 industry, but it fills a few places in California where the ground needs a cover. Its 

 range is in the northern coast range and the Sierra foothills, extending as far south as 

 Kings river. The edges of the leaves bear bent hooks like saw teeth. The foliage 

 falls in late winter. Trees are occasionally a foot or more in diameter. The wood 

 has not the appearance of possessing much value, and is too scarce to be important. 

 The most interesting thing connected with this tree is that it is supposed to be a 



