FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



319 



height, with slender upright branches. The form varies greatly ; in close stands, 

 the crown is narrow, with upright branches and a long clear trunk, rarely 

 straight ; in the open, the crown is broad, with big. horizontal limbs, and the 

 trunk is short and thick. The trunks are smooth looking, pale brown tinged 

 with red, often with grayish areas; their thick, firm bark lias deep, narrow 

 seams cutting it into very wide, squarish plates ; the bark of young trees and of 

 large limbs is smooth and unbroken. Young twigs are densely woolly (with 

 star-shaped hairs), but the wool disappears after the first year, when the 

 branchlets are deep brown, tinged with red, and are often covered with a whitish 



Fig. 149. — Quercus demiflora. 



bloom. Full grown leaves (figs. 148 to 150) are light green, smooth, and shiny 

 (occasionally with woolly areas) on their top sides, and densely woolly with 

 reddish brown hairs beneath; in late summer the leaves become thick ami 

 leathery and the woolliness disappears excepl tor a few hairs on the lower sur- 

 face, which is then whitish with a very pale blue tint. Leaves of a season's 

 growth persist for 3 to 4 seasons. Acorns (tig. 150) mature in the fall of the 

 second year, when they are dull, very pale yellowish brown, usually smooth and 

 shiny, but frequently more or less downy, while the finely hairy, bristly scales 

 of the cup (sometimes very woolly at its base) are pale yellow brown. 



