FAGACE.E 235 



lustrous above, 2'-6' long, \' to nearly 2' wide, with a stout midrib raised and rounded 

 on the upper side; turning yellow at maturity and falling gradually at the end of their 

 second or in their third year; petioles \'-\' in length; stipules ovate, rounded or acute at 

 apex, brown and scarious, puberulous, \'-\' long. Flowers appearing irregularly from 

 June until February in the axils of broadly ovate apiculate pubescent bracts on staminate 

 and androgynous scurfy stout-stemmed aments 2'-2|' long and crowded at the ends of 

 the branches; calyx of the staminate flower coated on the outer surface with hoary tomen- 

 tum, divided into broadly ovate rounded lobes much shorter than the slender stamens; 

 calyx of the pistillate flower oblong-campanulate, free from the ovary, clothed with hoary 

 tomentum, divided at apex into short rounded lobes, rather shorter than the minute 

 abortive stamens; anthers red; ovary conic, hirsute, with elongated slightly spread- 

 ing thick pale stigmas. Fruit ripening at the end of the second season, involucre glo- 

 bose, dehiscent, irregularly 4-valved, often slightly shorter than the nuts, sessile, solitary, 

 or clustered, tomentose and covered on the outer surface by long stout or slender rigid 

 spines, V-\\' in diameter, containing 1 or occasionally 2 nuts; nuts broadly ovoid, acute, 

 obtusely 3-angled, light yellow-brown and lustrous; seeds dark purple-red, sweet and 

 edible. " 





Fig. 219 



A tree, 50-100 high, with a massive trunk 3-6 in diameter, frequently free of branches 

 for 50, stout spreading branches forming a broad compact round-topped or conic head, 

 and rigid branchlets coated when they first appear with bright golden-yellow scurfy 

 scales, dark reddish brown and slightly scurfy during their first winter, and gradually 

 growing darker in their second season; often much smaller and sometimes reduced to a 

 shrub, 2-12 high (var. minor A. De Candolle). Winter-buds fully grown at mid-sum- 

 mer, usually crowded near the end of the branch, ovoid or subglobose, with broadly ovate 

 apiculate thin and papery light brown scales slightly puberulous on the back, ciliate on 

 the scarious often reflexed margins, the terminal about \' long and broad and rather larger 

 than the often stipitate axillary buds. Bark l'-2' thick and deeply divided into rounded 

 ridges 2'-3' wide, broken into thick plate-like scales, dark red-brown on the surface and 

 bright red internally. Wood light, soft, close-grained, not strong, light brown tinged with 

 red, with thin lighter colored sap wood of 50-60 layers of annual growth; occasionally used 

 in the manufacture of ploughs and other agricultural implements. 



Distribution. Skamania County, Washington, valley of the lower Columbia River, Ore- 

 gon, southward along the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains, and in California along 

 the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and through the coast ranges to the elevated val- 

 leys of the San Jacinto Mountains, sometimes ascending to altitudes of 4000 above the 

 sea; of its largest size in the humid coast valleys of northern California. 



Occasionally cultivated in the gardens of temperate Europe. 



