FAGACE.E 273 



upper and more gradually from the lower surface, at maturity thick and coriaceous, bright 

 yellow-green and glabrous above, more or less fulvous-tomentose below during their first 

 year, ultimately becoming glabrate and bluish white, 1'-- 1' long, '-2' wide, with thickened 

 revolute margins; deciduous during their third and fourth years; petioles slender, yellow, 

 rarely |' in length. Flowers: staminate in slender tomentose aments 2'-4' long; calyx 

 light yellow, pubescent, divided usually into 5-7 broadly ovate acute ciliate lobes often 

 tinged with red above the middle; pistillate sessile or subsessile or rarely in short few- 

 flowered spikes, their broadly ovate involucral scales coated with fulvous tomentum; stig- 

 mas bright red. Fruit usually solitary, sessile or short-stalked; nut ellipsoidal or ovoid, 

 acute or rounded at the full or narrow slightly puberulous apex, light chestnut-brown, '-2' 

 long and about as thick, the shell lined with a thin coat of loose tomentum, with abortive 

 ovules scattered irregularly over the side of the seed, inclosed only at the base in a thin 

 hemispheric or in a thick turbinate broad-rimmed cup pale green or dark reddish brown 

 within, and covered by small triangular closely appressed scales with a short free tip, 

 clothed with hoary pubescence, or often hidden in a dense coat of fulvous tomentum. 



A tree, usually not more than 40-50 high, with a short trunk 3-5 in diameter, di- 

 viding into great horizontal limbs sometimes forming a head 150 across, and slender rigid 

 or flexible branchlets coated at first with thick fulvous tomentum, becoming during their 

 first winter dark brown somewhat tinged with red, tomentose, pubescent, or glabrous, 

 and ultimately light brown or ashy gray; occasionally in sheltered canons producing 

 trunks 8-9 in diameter; on exposed mountain sides forming dense thickets 15-20 high. 

 Winter-buds broadly ovoid or oval, acute, about f long, w r ith closely imbricated light 

 chestnut-brown usually puberulous scales. Bark f'-l' thick, light or dark gray-brown 

 tinged with red, and covered by small closely appressed scales. Wood heavy, very 

 strong, hard, tough, close-grained, light brown, with thick darker colored sap wood; used 

 in the manufacture of agricultural implements and wagons. 



Distribution. Southern Oregon, along the California coast ranges and the western slopes 

 of the Sierra Nevada to the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains; of its largest size 

 in the canons of the coast ranges of central California and on the foothills of the Sierra 

 Nevada; ascending to altitudes of 8000-9000 above the sea; near the southern boundary 

 of California, on the mountains of northern Lower California and Sonora and in Arizona 

 (Santa Rita and Huachuca Mountains, on Beaver Creek and in Copper Canon near 

 Camp Verde, and in Sycamore Canon south of Flagstaff), usually shrubby, with rigid 

 branches, rigid coriaceous oblong or semiorbicular spinose-dentate leaves, subsessile or 

 pedunculate fruit, with ovoid acute nuts l'-l|' long, their shells lined with thick or thin 

 pale tomentum, and purple cotyledons (var. Palmeri Engelm. Quercus Wilcoxii Rydb.) 



26. Quercus tomentella Engelm. 



Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute, sometimes cuspidate or occasionally rounded at apex, 

 broad and rounded or gradually narrowed and abruptly cuneate at base, remotely crenate- 

 dentate with small remote spreading callous tipped teeth, or entire, when they unfold light 

 green tinged with red, covered above with scattered pale fascicled hairs and below and on 

 the petioles with thick hoary tomentum, at maturity thick and coriaceous, dark green, 

 glabrous and lustrous on the upper surface, pale and covered w r ith fascicled hairs on the 

 lower surface, 2'-4' long, l'-2' wide, with thickened strongly revolute margins, and a 

 pubescent midrib; gradually deciduous during their third season; petioles stout, pubescent, 

 about \' in length. Flowers: staminate in pubescent aments 2^'-14' long, calyx light 

 yellow, pubescent, divided into 5-7 ovate acute lobes; pistillate subsessile or in few-flow- 

 ered spikes on short or elongated pubescent peduncles, their involucral scales like the calyx 

 coated with fascicled hairs; stigmas red. Fruit subsessile or short-stalked; nut ovoid, 

 broad at base, full and rounded at apex, about 1^' long and f ' thick, inclosed only at the 

 base in a cup-shaped shallow cup thickened below, light brown and pubescent on the inner 

 surface, and covered by thin ovate acute scales, their free chestnut-brown tips more or less 

 hidden in a thick coat of hoary tomentum. 



