October 2, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest 



471 



is sparse and small. When the Rev. Mr. Fitch, the first after 

 General Fremont to observe the shrub, described it to Dr. 

 Torrey as having very much the appearance of an ordinary 

 Fig-tree, he must have had in view the mere outline and te.xture 

 of the leaves. In these points only are the leaves like fig- 

 leaves ; for they are commonly only an inch in diameter, 

 and rusty tomentose beneath. The bark of both main stem 

 and branches is, indeed, smooth and much like that of the Fig- 

 tree, but darker, even blackish on the older trunks. But the 

 beauty of the Fremontia is in the crowded profusion of its red 

 and yellow Hibiscus-like flowers. Each wand-like branch, at 

 flowering time, is simply a long, solid wreath of bright yellow, 

 tinged with a rusty red ; and the arrangement of the branches — • 

 the head of the tree — is as far from the conventional as the 

 structure of the flower is unique. Growing along the steep 

 and jagged rocky slopes of the mountains, the dark, smooth 

 trunk will rise erect, while all the long-flowering branches, not 

 rarely six or eight feet long, will hang on one side, it may be ; 

 or they may spread out in several directions, forming a flat- 

 topped, or umbrella-like body ; but the bush or small tree, not 

 rarely twelve feet in height, is always attractive if in bloom and 

 the flowering season is not brief. Or rather, the showy corolla- 

 like calyces, of great firmness of texture, remain fresh a long 

 time, and finally wither, almost without. change of color, and 

 remain attached to the growing fruit for some weeks. 



Attaining its best development among the arid hills which 

 shut in such almost rainless and overheated regions as the Mo- 

 have Desert, it is not likely that the Fremontia could be made 

 well at home in gardens even in the milder regions of the east. 

 In its more northerly habitat, the upper Sacramento valley in 

 California, it is smaller and less beautiful by far than under the 

 comparatively rainless skies of the southern interior. But any 

 lover of shrubs, at once odd and beautiful, having once enjoyed 

 the sight of this one in flower, will wish he might add it to the 

 ornaments of home. , r r- 



University of California. Edward L. Greene. 



Notes Upon Some North American Trees. — XII. 



254- QuERCUs OBTusiLOBA, Mlchx. — A much older name 

 than that of Michaux (1801) for this tree is that of Wangen- 

 heim (Amer. 78, t. 6., f. 15, 1789). — Q. stellata; but 

 Marshall's Q. alba minor (1785) is older still, and if such 

 names of Marshall's as Juglans 7ninima and Juglans odora/a 

 are to be taken up there seems no escape from Quercus 

 minor as there can be no doubt of the identity of the 

 species to which he applied this name. 



The variety of this species with almost entire or undulate 

 somewhat angled thin leaves is common on the sandy west 

 coast of Florida, reaching at least as far south as Tampa, 

 where it grows into a tree twenty to thirty feet high. The 

 oldest name for this plant appears to be Q. parvifolia of 

 Chapman ; so that it would become if it is considered a 

 variety of the Post-Oak, with which it is connected by 

 intermediate forms, var. parvifolia. 



255. Quercus undulata var., Gambellh, Engelm. — This is 

 the common deciduous-leaved White Oak found in the 

 mountain caiions from western Texas to southern New 

 Mexico and Arizona, northern Mexico, Colorado and Utah. 

 It is very closely related to the eastern Quercus alba ; and 

 Mr. Edward L. Greene, whose opportunities for studying 

 this tree in the field have been great, insists (West Ameri- 

 can Oaks, 23,) that it cannot be considered a form of the 

 shrubby evergreen Q. undulata, with which it was united 

 by Engelmann. Forms occur, or appear to occur, in the 

 herbarium which seem to lead to a union more or less close 

 of all the Oaks of the interior of the continent ; but with 

 Oaks, and indeed, with nearly all trees, a judgment of 

 specific differences and limitations based primarily on 

 studies in the field is the best, and in this case I am glad to 

 have impressions gathered from an examination of dried 

 specimens only, confirmed by Mr. Greene's field obser- 

 vations, and I shall follow him in restoring the Quercus 

 Gambelii of Nuttall. 



263. Quercus oblongifolia. Torn — Mr. Greene proposes 

 (/. c.) to separate from this New Mexico and Arizona tree 

 the evergreen White Oak of southern California, under the 

 name of Quercus Engebnanni. The California tree is 

 larger, with larger leaves, often refuse or emarginate, larger 

 striate acorns and much thicker cup-scales ; and in the herba- 



rium it is not difficult to distinguish the two plants, which 

 it will be best, probably, to keep separate. It is less evi- 

 dent, however, that Mr. Greene's proposition (/. c. 2p) that 

 Q. grisea, Liebm., is a variety of Q. undidata, Torn, to 

 which he would refer also Torrey's Q. oblongifolia, can be 

 sustained. The connate cotyledons of Q. grisea would 

 seem to separate this from the other Rocky Mountain and 

 north Mexican White Oaks ; although Q. oblongifolia may 

 well be an arborescent form of the polymorphous and 

 generally shrubby Q. imdulala. But these are matters which 

 cannot be settled at this time and which only protracted 

 field observations can determine satisfactorily. 



267. Quercus virens. Ait. — Alton's name (Hort. Kew, iii., 

 356), published in 1789, must give way to Miller's older 

 one (Gardeners' Dictionary, ed. 8.), published in 1768 — 

 Quercus Virginiana. 



Quercus tomentilla. — This evergreen White Oak is 

 closely related to Q. chrysolepis, from which it is readily 

 distinguished by the stellate pubescence of the young shoots 

 and foliage and by the prominent primary veins of the 

 leaves. It was discovered by Dn Edward Palmer in 1875, 

 on the Island of Guadaloupe off the coast of Lower Cali- 

 fornia, and has recently been found by Mr. Greene on the 

 Island of Santa Cruz, and last year by Mr. Brandigee on 

 Santa Rosa : and it must now be included in the North 

 American Silva. Its position is immediately after Q. chry- 

 solepis. 



Quercus Morehus, Kellogg. — Mr. Greene proposes (/. c. 

 3) to take up this species first described by Dr. Kellogg 

 (Proc. Cal. Acad., ii., 36). It is a small tree, thirty feet 

 high, widely distributed in the California coast-ranges and 

 in the Sierra foot-hills, but nowhere common. It is nearly 

 intermediate in character between the deciduous leaved 

 Q. Kelloggii, the common Black Oak of the Pacific coast 

 forests, and the evergreen Q. Wislizeni, and it has been 

 suggested that it may have been produced by a cross be- 

 tween these two species — a view which Mr. Greene does 

 not share, and which he believes to have been impossi- 

 ble. I have no knowledge of the plant beyond what has 

 been gained from the examination of a single herbarium 

 specimen in fruit, and from Mr. Greene's description. 



277. Quercus falcata, Michx. — There are, perhaps, 

 three older names for the Spanish Oak than that of Michaux 

 published in 180 1. It has been sometimes thought that the 

 Q. rtibra digitata and Q. rubra monlana of IMarshall had 

 reference to this species, but there is a vagueness in the 

 descriptions which leaves some doubt as to just what tree 

 he had in mind. It will therefore be safe to pass by these 

 names entirely and take up the Q. cuneaia of Wangenheim 

 (Amen 78, t. 5, f. 14, a), published in 1789, or fourteen 

 years before Michaux's name. Wangenheim's figure repre- 

 sents a leaf of the trilobed form of the species — the Q. 

 triloba of Michaux. 



288. Quercus cineria, Michx. — The reference of this 

 species to the Q. hutnilis of Walter, which is several years 

 older than Michaux's name, is too uncertain, without an 

 examination of Walter's herbarium, which is preserved in 

 the British Museum, to make any change of name for this 

 species possible. 



Quercus Leana, Nutt. — This tree has generally been con- 

 sidered a natural hybrid, between Q. imbricaria and Q. 

 coccinea or Q. tinctoria. It is now known in several widely 

 scattered localities, from the neighborhood of Washington, 

 D. C, to Missouri ; and there seems no reason, whatever 

 its origin may have been or however recently it may have 

 appeared, why, if Q. heterophylla, which many excellent 

 observers have always considered a h3^brid, is included as 

 a species in the American Silva, Q. Leana should not 

 be included also. It should follow immediately after Q. 

 imbricaria with which its relationship is ob^'ious. 



Quercus Macdonaldi, Greene. — This is described as a 

 small deciduous tree by Mr. Greene (West American Oaks, 

 25) who discovered it on Santa Cruz Island, California, with 



