FAGACE^ 



281 





red or yellow; pistillate on short stems tomentose like their involucral scales. Fruit 

 sessile or on hoary-tomentose stalks rarely ' long, usually solitary, ripening irregu- 

 larly from September to November; acorti oblong, oval or slightly obovate, obtuse 

 and rounded at the ptiberulous apex, '-!' long, ' broad, dark chestnut-brown, lus- 

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

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

 regularly 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 3^1 in diameter, and thick con- 

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

 topped symmetrical 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 -j^' 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 



tigub 



and deeply divided by narrow fissures into broad ridges broken 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 

 Arizona and New Mexico, covering the slopes- of cafions of the mountain ranges 

 south of the Colorado plateau at elevations of 5000-10,000 above the sea, often 

 ascending nearly to the summits of the high peaks; and in northern Mexico. 



43. Quercus Toumeyi, Sarg. 



Leaves ovate or ovate-oblong or oval, acute and apiculate at the apex, rounded 

 or cordate at the base, entire, with thickened slightly revolute margins, or remotely 

 spinulose-dentate, often minutely 3-toothed at the apex, thin but firm in texture, 

 light blue-green, glabrous and lustrous above, pale and puberulous below, ^'-f ' long, 



