California Oaks. 219 



oak" (Quercus coccinea) furnishes the " quercitron," so highly val- 

 ued as a yellow dye and a tanning material, and is an article of con- 

 siderable commercial importance. 



864. Upon the Pacific Coast we find a dozen or more species of 

 the oak, some of them fine and ornamental, but none of them of 

 great importance for their timber, which is weak, brittle, and alto- 

 gether inferior to the general quality of oaks as found in the Atlan- 

 tic States. They chiefly belong to the " white oak" family. Four 

 or live of them have persistent leaves, the rest being deciduous, and 

 one of them much resembles the chestnut. 



865. THE LONG-ACORNED OAK (Q. Hindsii) of California, much 

 resembles the white oak of the Eastern States. It is the finest and 

 perhaps most abundant of the oaks of that region, occurring along 

 the foot-hills and the valleys of streams in clumps and belts, branch- 

 ing out low and broad, and sometimes five or six feet in diameter 

 near the ground. The wood is porous and brittle. The acorns are 

 gathered and eaten by the natives, and stored for winter use. 



866. THE CALIFORNIA CHESTNUT OAK (Q. densiflora) is a small 

 tree with evergreen leaves, found growing on the coast range with 

 the red-woods. It sometimes occurs fifty or sixty feet high, and 

 from one to two feet in diameter. It is often only a shrub. The 

 fruit ripens the second year, and the wood is worthless and brittle. 

 This oak is the only American representative of a group found 

 chiefly in Asia, having strong resemblance to the chestnut, with 

 spines on its cup, somewhat like those on the chestnut- burr. In the 

 Sacramento Valley, it forms a low but handsome tree. 



867. THE EVERGREEN OAK of California, often called the "shrub 

 oak" (Q. agrifolia, is a low spreading tree, having much the form 

 of an apple-tree, rarely over a foot in diameter, and 30 to 40 feet 

 high. It occurs in the Sacramento Valley, and extends south into 

 Mgxico. The wood is hard, brittle, and too small for valuable use. 



868. THE CHESTNUT (Castanea vesca). This tree is found native 

 from the central part of New England and Central New York 

 southward and westward, extending into the mountains of the Car- 

 olinas and Georgia, and occurring abundantly in the eastern part 

 of Kentucky and Tennessee. In Canada it is found only in the 

 peninsula westward from the Niagara river, and is not of sufficient 

 abundance to be of much practical account. It is common in the 

 states north of the Ohio river, where the soil is favorable. Our 



