284 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



pubescence below, with a hirsute or puberulous prominent midrib and more or less con- 

 spicuous reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, tomentose, \'-% in length. Flowers: staminate 

 in hairy aments lf'-2' long; calyx yellow-green, coated on the outer surface with pale hairs, 

 deeply divided into broad acute laciniately cut segments; pistillate in short few-flowered 

 spikes coated like the involucral scales with hoary tomentum. Fruit sessile or short- 

 stalked, solitary or in pairs; nut ellipsoidal, sometimes ventricose, with a narrow base, 

 gradually narrowed and acute at apex, f'-l' long, |'-1' thick, or often ovoid and acute, 

 green and lustrous, turning dark chestnut-brown in drying, with a narrow ring of hoary 

 pubescence at apex, inclosed only at base in a thin shallow cup-shaped cup light green 

 and pubescent on the inner surface, covered on. the outer by small acute and usually 

 thin or sometimes, especially in the south, thicker tumid scales coated with pale pubes- 

 cence or tomentum and ending in thin reddish brown tips. 





Fig. 260 



A tree, usually 50-60, rarely 80-90 high, with a trunk 3-4 in diameter, short 

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

 metrical head, stout branchlets brittle at the joints, coated at first with short dense hoary 

 tomentum, dark gray or reddish browr and tomentose, pubescent, or puberulous during 

 their first winter, becoming ultimately ashy gray or dark brown ; frequently not more than 

 20-30 high, and sometimes, especially southward shrubby, in habit. Winter-buds 

 ovoid, obtuse, \'-\' long, with light rather bright red pubescent scales. Bark '-!' thick, 

 generally pale, and covered by small scales sometimes tinged with brown or light red. 

 Wood hard, heavy, strong, brittle, dark brown, becoming nearly black with exposure, with 

 thick light brown sap wood; largely used as fuel. 



Distribution. Scattered over low hills, dry mountain slopes and valleys; California, 

 Mendocino County, and the upper valley of the Sacramento River, southward along the 

 western slopes of the Sierra Nevada up to elevations of 4000, and through valleys of the 

 coast ranges to the Tehachapi Pass, the borders of the Mohave Desert (Sierra de la Liebre) 

 and the neighborhood of San Fernando, Los Angeles County; most abundant and of its 

 largest size in the valleys between the coast mountains and the interior ridges of the coast 

 ranges south of the Bay of San Francisco. 



X Quercus jolonensis Sarg. with characters intermediate between those of Quercus 

 Douglasii and Quercus lobata and believed to be a hybrid of those species occurs, with a 

 number of large trees, at Jolon and between Jolon and King City, Monterey County, 

 California. 





