J04 Notes on some Species of Oak Indigeiioits to California. 



NOTES ON SOME SPECIES OF OAK INDIGENOUS TO 

 CALIFORNIA, AND WORTHY OF NOTICE. 



1. Qiiercus Agrifoiia (Nees). — A dwarf tree in most situations, though 

 sometimes reaching the height of forty or fifty feet, var\'ing greatly "n size, 

 form, and dentures of the leaf, as well as in the size and shape of the 

 acorns. It is the Q. oxyad:nia of Torrey in Sitzgreave's Report, tab. 17, 

 where the singular and peculiarly acute elongated acorn is well represented. 

 Leaves fiom one to two inches long, probably evergreen, pale green and 

 rather dull above, clothed with a ferrugineous pubescence beneath (Tor- 

 rey, /// Botany of Pacifie-railroad Survey, vol. iv. p. 13S). Some valuable 

 information respecting the species may be had by reference to Proceedings 

 of the California Academy of Natural Sciences, vol. iii. p. 229. It occurs 

 almost exclusively in the vicinity of San-Francisco Bay, and on the banks 

 of the stream emptying into it, extending also southward, approaching the 

 coast more nearly as we reach Monterey (Bolander). The Q. Wislizeni 

 {Efigelman?!), which was thought to be only a form of this, is proved to be 

 distinct, and differing as they do materially in their distribution. 



2. Q. c>-ass:pocuIa (Torrey). — Another species dependent on situation 

 for size, and varying from a mere bush with entire leaves to trees forty feet 

 high. Canon Pass, Sierra Nevada. 



3. Q. chrysoLpis {lAQhm2x\). — The drooping live-oak is the most rare 

 of all the Californian species, — a tree thirty or forty feet high, with mostly 

 long, slender, drooping branches, evergreen (Bolander op. cit.). 



4. Q. densiftora (Hooker and Arnott). — The chestnut-oak of California 

 is associated with the red-wood trees, attaining in dense woods the pro- 

 portions of a rather large tree ; the timber of no value, and called by the 

 logmen the water-oak (Bolander). 



5. Q. Donglassii {J:\.ooV&x). — The pale oak has short, rigid, and erect 

 branchlcts ; the acorns abundantly borne on the ends of the branchlets, 

 and resting, as it were, on the dark-green leaves (Bolander). 



6. Q. echinacea (Torrey " ined."). — This is pronounced to be a fine spe- 

 cies, and first discovered by Mr. Brackenridge on the upper waters of 

 Sacramento Creek, and subsequently by several others in various parts of 



