10 Miscellaneous Circular 31, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 



in the late fall a bill slope of Brewer 

 Oaks looks all gray, like a mist on 

 the mountain. 



The principal Scrub Oak of the 

 southern part of the State has the 

 specific name of " dumosa." It is sel- 

 dom over 8 feet high and has a great 

 variety of leaf forms, sometimes pro- 

 ducing on the same plant leaves with 

 smooth edges, leaves twisted at the 

 edges and set with " prickers," and 

 leaves deeply lobed. The general ef- 

 fect, however, is of pricker-edged 

 leaves. Try to force your way through 

 a Dumosa Scrub Oak and you will in- 

 dorse this statement. The oval acorns, 

 from % to iy s inches in length, are 

 set in shallow saucers rather than in 

 cups ; these saucers look as if they had 

 been quilted. In size and shape the 

 acorns vary almost as much as the 

 leaves. The leaves of one season stay 

 until the next spring's growth pushes 

 them off. 



Away up in the northwestern corner 

 of the State, and extending into south- 

 western Oregon, is a most interesting 

 scrub oak, the Sadler Oak. Occasion- 

 ally reaching a height of 8 feet, it is 

 more often under 3 feet in height, but 

 has surprisingly large leaves for such 

 a small oak. These leaves. 3 to 4 

 inches long, are heavily veined on the 

 under side, the veins ending like 

 prickles that beset the edges of the 

 leaves. The leaf stems, one-half inch 

 or more long, are positively furry with 

 rust-colored hairs. 



In addition to these three distinct 

 sorts of scrub oak there are varieties 

 of the taller oaks. The Huckleberry 

 Oak, for instance, is a variety of the 

 Canyon Live Oak, and looks like an 

 exquisite miniature of its big brother. 

 The Canyon Live Oak itself forms 

 round green shrubs that cling to the 

 sides of such canyons as the Yosemite 

 and Kings River, and the Interior 

 Live Oak, at 3,000 to 4,000 feet, on dry 

 exposures, is the scrubbiest kind of a 

 scrub oak. Once one's eyes are opened 

 to the brush, it is delightful to come 

 across a thicket or a single specimen 

 of tough-twigged scrub that has acorns 

 on it. 



THE WILLOWS 



In spite of California town camps, 

 forest camps, and park camps to which 

 pure water is piped, we enjoy camp- 

 ing by stream sides best of all. Here 

 we have a chance to get acquainted 

 with many sorts of water-loving trees, 

 among them the nine species of wil- 

 lows, one of which is the very same 

 Black Willow found in the Eastern 

 States. 



Perhaps the " Weeping Willow " is 

 the mind-picture that comes to all of a" 

 us; but that sort, though a favorite ™ 

 near the wells of our grandfathers, 

 was planted there and is not native 

 to America. Seven of the nine have 

 the typical long-pointed narrow willow 

 leaves, the other two — the White Wil- 

 low, and the Black Willow, distin- 

 guished by their light or dark gray 

 bark — have leaves broader in propor- 

 tion to their length and rounded at 

 the ends. All willows have at the foot 

 of each leaf stem, and more strongly 

 at the base of each shoot, a pair of 

 odd little ear-shaped, leaflike growths 

 that are sometimes dropped during 

 the summer, but most often persist 

 and help us to tell the willows from 

 other trees. All the willows, too, have 

 catkins (beginning before the leaves 

 as "pussy willows") for blossoms, 

 and all have quinine-bitter bark. If 

 you want to be perfectly sure a tree 

 is a willow, cut off a tiny bit of the 

 bark and taste it. None of the Cali- 

 fornia tree barks is at all poisonous, 

 and unless you are careless enough to 

 have cut into the shrubby poison oak 

 you will have had only an experience. 



The willows are seldom over 50 feet 

 high,' and more often are from 20 to 

 40; the mountain sorts are still 

 smaller and divided into many stems. 



Even well-trained botanists, with all 

 material at hand and a good glass, 

 sometimes have difficulty in distin- 

 guishing one species of willow from 

 another. It is enough for the rest of 

 us to know that a willow is a willow 

 and to enjoy its beauty and shade 

 from the " pussies " of spring to the 

 lemon-yellow foliage «f fall. 



THE POPLARS 



There are three sorts of these water- 

 loving trees in California — the Aspen 

 of the mountains, the Black Cotton- 

 wood of the foothill canyons, and the 

 Fremont Cottonwood of the lower 

 valleys. All have heart-shaped leaves 

 that turn yellow in the fall; their 

 bloom is a pendant catkin — or rather 

 two catkins — one bearing the pollen 

 dust on the male tree, the other even- 

 tually producing the " cotton " on the 

 female tree. The poplars and the wil- 

 lows grow under similar conditions 

 and are often found together. 



Most of us are lucky enough to 

 know the little Aspen — the " Quaking 

 Asp " — for it grows in Alaska, Canada, M 

 the Eastern United States as far V 

 south as Misouri, the Western States, 

 and Mexico, at elevations varying 

 from sea level to over 10.000 feet. 



