FAGACE.E 



281 



obovoid, obtuse and rounded at the puberulous apex, f'-l' long, |' thick, dark chestnut- 

 brown, lustrous and often striate, soon becoming light brown, inclosed for half its length 

 in a cup-shaped or hemispheric cup light brown and pubescent within, covered by regu- 

 larly and closely imbricated scales coated with pale tomentum and ending in thin light red 

 pointed tips, those below the middle of the cup much thickened and rounded on the back; 

 seed dark purple, very astringent. 



A tree, occasionally 50-60 tall, with a trunk 3-4 in diameter, and thick contorted 

 branches spreading nearly at right angles and forming a handsome round-topped sym- 

 metrical head, and stout branchlets clothed at first with thick fulvous tomentum persistent 

 during their first winter, reddish brown or light orange color and pubescent or puberulous 

 in their second season, ultimately glabrous and darker; usually not more than 30-40 

 tall; at high elevations reduced to a low shrub. Winter -buds subglobose, about T 7 tf ' long, 

 with loosely imbricated bright chestnut-brown puberulous scales ciliate on the margins. 

 Bark of young stems and branches thin, pale, scaly with small appressed scales, becoming 

 on old trunks about 1' thick and deeply divided by narrow fissures into broad ridges broken 



Fig. 257 



into long thick plate-like scales pale or ashy gray on the surface. Wood heavy, strong, hard, 

 close-grained, dark brown or nearly black, with thick lighter colored sap wood; used only 

 for fuel. 



Distribution. The most common and generally distributed White Oak of southern 

 New Mexico and Arizona, covering the slopes of canons of mountain ranges at altitudes 

 of from 5000-10,000 above the sea, often ascending nearly to the summits of the high 

 peaks; and in northern Mexico. 



33. Quercus oblongifolia Torn White Oak. 



Leaves ovate, elliptic, or slightly obovate, rounded and occasionally emarginate or acute 

 at apex, usually cordate or occasionally rounded at base, entire and sometimes undulate 

 with thickened revolute margins, or remotely dentate with small callous teeth, on vigorous 

 shoots and young plants oblong, rounded or cuneate at the narrow base, coarsely sinuate 

 or undulate-toothed or 3-toothed at the broad apex and entire below, when they unfold 

 bright red and coated with deciduous hoary tomentum, at maturity thin and firm, blue- 

 green and lustrous above, paler below, l'-2' long, J'-f wide, or on vigorous shoots some- 

 times 3'-4' long, with a prominent pale midrib, slender primary veins, and conspicuous 

 reticulate veinlets; persistent during the winter without change of color, gradually turning 

 yellow in the spring and falling at the appearance of the new leaves; petioles stout, nearly 



