1^6 West American Scientist. 



I wish to emphasize here that these forests should remain 

 intact. The value of the timber on these water sheds is insigni- 

 ficant compared to the benefit which results to the surrounding 

 country from their presence, and it would be a near-sighted and 

 extremely fatal policy that should seek to uti ize them otherwise. 

 The timber is inferior in quaHty to that found further north. 

 Stringent measures should be taken to prevent injury to these 

 water sheds either from the woodman's ax or from destructive 

 mountain fires. 



Quercus lobata, Nee, is a large and stately tree, with glabrous 

 slender, often pendulent branches, that may be looked for in the 

 higher mountains but I have not met with it in the wild state. 

 Young trees are in cultivation near San Diego. 



Q. chrysolepis, Liebm, the largest evergreen oak of Calitornia' 

 is lound abundant on the San Jacinto, Palomar and Cuyamaca 

 Mountains, and a few straggly, stunted trees were found near 

 Hanson's ranch. Lower California, at an elevation of about six 

 thousand feet. This golden -leafed live oak at its best grows to a 

 height of loo feet with a spread of 150 feet and a diameter of 

 eight to ten feet. At high altitudes or in unfavorable locations it 

 merely forms a low shrub. The acorns mature the second season 

 after flowering ard are remarkable tor their large size. 



Q. Kelloggii, Newberry, fitly commemorates the services ot the 

 gentle botanist who so recently passed away. It is a middle-sized 

 tree, sometimes a shrub, with rough black bark, common through- 

 out the State. It is found in this county with the preceding 

 species, but I have not yet observed it in Lower California. Leaves 

 thick, broadly oval, pinnatifid-lobed, three to four and one-half or 

 more rarely six inches long, deciduous. 



Q. oblongifolia, Torrey, the mountain live oak, or evergreen 

 white oak, occupies some of the higher valleys at the foot of the 

 mountains, forming pretty groves on their borders and lining 

 some of the 'canyons. It is a middle-sized tree with pale, 

 smoothish bark, attaining a height of twenty or thirty feet. The 

 oblong leaves are one or two inches long and half as wide, on 

 very short petioles, entire or with a few blunt teeth, obtuse at 

 each end or subcordate at base, at first soft, downy, the older 

 ones entirely glabrous, coriaceous and almost without reticula- 

 tion. I have not noted the species south of the United States 

 line. It is also known as the post oak. 



I now come to the lower mountain district, boidering the 

 Colorado Desert, so-called, that forms the eastern part of San 

 Diego County and of the northern half of the peninsula. This 

 region possesses a distinct flora, as far as the general character of 

 vegetation is concerned, from that found west of the mountains, 

 and presents three species of oaks not found elsewhere in Cali- 

 fornia. Two of these three species are common to Arizona and 



