FAGACE^l 



283 



new leaves; petioles slender, tomentose, becoming pubescent, j'-|' in length. Flowers: 

 stamina te in slender hairy aments 2'-3' long; calyx light yellow, pilose, with lanceolate 

 acute segments; pistillate on slender peduncles, clothed like their involucral scales with 

 dense pale tomentum. Fruit sessile or on slender pubescent peduncles sometimes f 

 long; nut oblong, gradually narrowed and acute or broad rounded and obtuse at apex, 

 broad or narrow at base, dark chestnut-brown more or less conspicuously marked by 

 darker longitudinal stripes, turning light chestnut-brown in drying, f'-l' long, about \' 

 thick, inclosed for about half its length in a deep saucer-shaped, cup-shaped or turbinate 

 cup light brown and puberulous within, and covered by ovate light brown scales coated 

 with pale tomentum, usually thickened, united and tuberculate at the base of the cup, 

 and near its rim produced into small acute ciliate tips. 





Fig. 259 



A tree, 50-60 high, with a trunk 2-3 in diameter, thick branches spreading nearly at 

 right angles and forming a broad rather irregular head, and stout rigid branchlets coated at 

 first with hoary tomentum, light or dark brown tinged with red and pubescent during their 

 first winter, becoming glabrous and light brown or gray in their second or third year. 

 Winter-buds oval or ovoid, about f long, with thin light red pubescent scales. Bark 

 l'-2' thick, light gray tinged with brown, deeply divided by narrow fissures and separating 

 on the surface into small thin appressed scales. Wood very heavy, hard, strong, close- 

 grained, brittle, dark brown or nearly black, with thick lighter brown sap wood; used only 

 for fuel. 



Distribution. Low hills of southwestern California west of the coast range, occupying 

 with Quercus agrifolia Nee, a belt about fifty miles wide, and extending to within fifteen 

 or twenty miles of the coast, from the neighborhood of Sierra Madre and San Gabriel, Los 

 Angeles County, to the mesa east of San Diego; in northern Lower California. 



35. Quercus Douglasii Hook. & Arn. Blue Oak. Mountain White Oak. 

 Leaves oblong, acute or rounded at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate or broad 

 and rounded or subcordate at base, divided by deep or shallow, wide or narrow sinuses acute 

 or rounded in the bottom into 4 or 5 broad or narrow acute or rounded often mucronate 

 lobes, 2'-5' long, I'-lf wide, or oval, oblong or obovate, rounded or acute at apex, equally 

 or unequally cuneate or rounded at base, regularly or irregularly sinuate-toothed with 

 rounded acute rigid spinescent teeth, or denticulate toward the apex, l'-2' long, J'-l' 

 wide, when they unfold covered by soft pale pubescence, at maturity thin, firm and rather 

 rigid, pale blue, with scattered fascicled hairs above, often yellow-green and covered by short 



