Qo CUPULIFER.E. Quercus. 



thicker and more spiny. It is closely allied to Q. chrysolqns, but distingnislied by the shape of 

 the anthers and cup, by the basal ovules, and by the dense coating on tlic msido ot the shell, 

 which it has in conuuon with the Black Oaks. 



* ^v Ahorthe ovules home at the top of the seed: anthers usualhj larger and 

 fewer (4 or 5) except in n. 11 : stlrjmas on loufj spreadbuj or recurved 

 styles: nut silky-tomentose within. Bark dark or black: wood (jenerally 

 more porous and perishable : lobes and teeth of the leaves setaceouslij mu- 

 cronate. — Black Oaks. 



-i- Acorns maturiuff the first season: leaves S7ibpersiste7if. 

 11. Q. agrifolia, Nee, 1. c. 271. A stately tree of the largest dimensions, some- 

 times shrubby, with very thick gray or leatlier-colored smoothish bark (becoming 

 cracked only in the oldest trees), and with brittle wood : young growth with a slight 

 soon deciduous stellate pubescence : leaves oval to orbicular or oblong, about 2 or 

 rarely 3 inches long, usually obtuse or cordate at base, sinuately spinose-dentate or 

 rarely entire, on downy petioles 3 or 4 lines long, mostly convex above, pale-green 

 Avithout lustre and only slightly reticulate, pale and smooth beneath : aments at last 

 olabrate : calyx-lobes 5 or 6, ovate, nearly glabrous : anthers about 6, sometimes 8 

 or 10, obtuse or cuspidate : acorns subsessile or sessile, solitary or sometimes clus- 

 tered ; cup turbinate, 3 to 5 lines wide and about as deep, with imbricated lanceo- 

 late brown slightly pubescent scales; nut elongated, tapering, 1 to 11 inches long 

 by 3 or 4 lines thick. — 2s utt. Sylva, i. 5, t. 2. Q. oxyadcnia, Torr. in Sitgr. 

 Eep. 172. t. 17. 



Var. frutescens. Shrubby, 3 to 5 feet high, with smaller leaves, often only an 

 inch long : acorns ^ to 1 inch in length, often crowded. 



Common in the maritime portions of Califovnia, principally south of San Francisco Bay, rare 

 as far north as Jlendocino County. A most picturescpie oak, with a stout low trunk olteu 8 to 12 

 feet sometimes 16 to 21 feet, in circumference (base of Mount Diablo, Brcircr), and with a spread 

 of branches of 120 feet. It is tlie " Encino" of the Jlexicans. The shrubby variety grows with 

 it especially southward, but also on the Oakland Hills and near Mendocino, Bohmdcr. This 

 tree behaves curiously in manv respects. Though properly an evergreen, it loses its leaves grad- 

 ually during the winter and in some specimens entirely before the spring slioots appear, while 

 others in the same neighborhood retain them several weeks or sometimes months longer Ur. 

 Bolander has observed that the trees that flower abundantly lose the old leaves earlier, while the 

 reallv evercn-een trees are apt not to flower at all. The aments often spring from the axils of 

 voumr leav"es. Sometimes, especially where the first growth has been injured by locusts, fresh 

 sprouls bearincr flowers are formed later in the summer, and their youi.a Iruit is apt to persist 

 through winter and even to enlarge somewhat in the iollowing spring, but it never matures. 

 Such attergrowth may easily be mistaken for a biennial maturation {E. llihjard). 

 -f- -i- Acorns maturing in the second season. 

 -}-r Leaves persistent. 

 1 •'» Q Wislizeni, A. DC. One of our largest oaks, but sometimes a low shrub : 

 bark black and r.ni-h : leaves coriaceous, smooth, strongly reticulated on the upper 

 .surface, dark -reen and shining, 1 to 3 or rarely 4 inches long by A to 2 inches wide 

 varyiu" exceedinoly in shaiw, from narrowly laaiceolate to broadly oval, mostly obiong- 

 lanceofate, truncate or subcordate or the narrower ones often acute at base entire or 

 serrulate or serrate, or often sinuate-dentate or -lobed and even with the lobes den- 

 tate ; petioles 2 to 4 lines long, at first pubescent : aments pubescent, like the young 

 leaves, with soon deciduous stellate hairs : calyx-lobes 5, broadly oval, glabrous, 

 ciliate : anthers 3 to 6 (usually 4 or 5), slightly apiculate : styles very slender, recurved, 

 often more than 3 : acorns sessile or peduncled or even spicate ; cup turbinate, very 

 deep or even tubular (i to 1 inch deep), covered with brown lanceolate subpubescent 

 imbricate scales; 1111^ slender, tapering, | to li inches long. — Prodr. xvi . b^ 

 Avhere the species is erroneously assigned to Northern Mexico ; hiigelm. 1. c 3Jb. 

 Q. Morehus,\\c\\o'^, "" 



