GOLDEN LEAF CANYON LIV1 OAK. 77 



any break around as to thereby thicken this relatively thin 

 expanse; the leaves arc more roundish, oftener spinous 

 toothed ; but a wonderful variety of forms must be expected; 

 acorns larger, cylindroid-oblong, and of the most perfect 

 symmetry of any known, just as if turned with the precision 

 of machinery, and so closely set in the cup that the creamy 

 white base is most distinctly marked and is rather abruptly 

 obtuse, the flattened base having a broad areolar insertion in 

 a shallowed cup, and this nicely clean cut, thin margined, 

 finely chased with small tuberculoid scales below. Sap and 

 heart-wood alike almost as white as the holly, used for inlay- 

 ing. On the high peaks, inland, they often branch low and 

 brawny; but on lower hills they tend more to the oblong 

 type of stature, and are sometimes seen spreading archwise 

 as they ascend and urning at the top. A few huge specimens 

 in the Sierras have quite the typical form, and for aught we 

 know, may prove of excellent value as ship timber; but 

 being so remote, and the quality so little known from actual 

 use, they must bide their own day. It is, however, well to 

 know that the timber of all the varieties holds a good repu- 

 tation. Some other equivocal varieties might be here men- 

 tioned, most of which have no size adequate to use (Q.fulve- 

 scens), however, is found fifty to sixty feet high, and a trunk 

 of four feet through, but for the most part it is only a small 

 tree, often a shrub, as in other species on this coast. Scrub 

 apes oft come in to imitate their betters, and some tiny mim- 

 ics, of only a few inches, bear acorns, as in the Ceros Island 

 variety, in these the leaves, very small, barely half an inch 

 long, egg heart form, abruptly horny, sharp pointed, entire 

 or toothed, very rigid and thick, shining above but net-pit- 

 ted on both sides, concave curved above or warped up at the 

 sides, tip recurved or turned back. The slightly velvety 

 acorns, also in pairs, on short stems one quarter to one half an 

 inch long, silky tomentose within, scales of the cup with more 

 elongated incurved points, and, as often seen, slightly fuscoid 

 velvety. Q. vxccinij'olia has been deemed another variety ; 

 there are, doubtless hybrids which we must omit. Perhaps 

 the best specimens here are seventy-five to one hundred feet 

 high, two and one half to four feet in diameter — thirty to 

 forty feet of clear timber on Tamalpais. From coast range 

 to Sierra Nevada, with the Laurel, Madrona, Chestnut, Sugar 

 Pine, and Tanbark Chestnut Oak, etc., in the coast and moun- 

 tain-tempered belt referred to above Sacramento Valley to 

 Yosemite, and below, where it is even found six to eight feet 

 in diameter, and by " coast range " must be understood from 

 northern to southern boundary of the State — in this latter 

 section are found many magnificent trees, and even the 

 smaller are complimented under the name of " Mall Oak." 



