LET’S KNOW SOME TREES ~~ 19 
THE OAKS 
The oaks of California are divided roughly into white and biack, 
according to the color of their trunks; and each of these sections is 
again divided into live or evergreen oaks and deciduous oaks. One 
species, the evergreen black oak, which is thought to be a hybrid 
between California black and highland live oaks, suggests a cross 
between the live and deciduous groups, for it holds its leaves until the 
swelling buds of spring push them off, leaving the branches bare but 
a few weeks. 
California oaks do not hold high rank in the production of com- 
mercial lumber, although occasionally barrel staves, flooring, bridge 
planks, and even furniture have been manufactured from some of 
them. As a rule, all the varieties form poor, cross-grained, brittle 
wood, decaying at the heart before saw-timber size is reached. They 
have been used principally for firewood and one species (tan oak) 
for tanbark. But from valley floor up the mountains to 4,000 feet 
they give the beauty and shade that are dear to every camper. 
Beyond that elevation they still gleam bright green, or in the fall 
golden and scarlet, among the darker pines; or form thickets of 
“scrub ” in openings. 
DECIDUOUS OAKS 
The three most widely scattered and abundant of the deciduous 
oaks—the three attaining the largest Size—are the valley white oak, 
the California blue oak, and the California black oak. A fourth, the 
Oregon white, or Garry oak, is abundant in California i in the north- 
ern coast region. 
The valley white oak (fig. 15) is the tree of the interior plains 
and valleys, growing in open stands, in groves, or scattered over 
miles of level or gently sloping ground, from ‘the headwaters of 
the Eel River to Los Angeles and Santa Monica. It is found up to 
5,000 feet in the watersheds of the Sur and Carmel on the north and 
west slopes of ‘Tamalpais, and up the first foothills of the Sierra, 
in some places as high as 3,000 feet. Occasionally a tree 100 feet 
high is seen, or one with a diameter of 30 to 40 inches—sometimes 
much more. As a rule, however, 40 to 50 feet is the height and 20 
to 30 inches the diameter of a valley oak. 
One of the finest specimens is the Sir Joseph Hooker oak near 
Chico, 150 feet in spread of branches, and with a trunk 61% feet in 
diameter. When the late General Bidwell took the celebrated Brit- 
ish botanist Sir Joseph Hooker to see this tree, the latter said he 
thought it was the largest and most beautiful oak he knew of any- 
where in the world. Another splendid specimen, 130 feet high, is 
in the Ojai Valley, and the Henley oak in Round Valley is 150 feet 
high and over 8 feet in diameter. 
The incut leaves vary in size, but are of the sort from which the 
oak-leaf patterns used in carving, table linen, and embroideries are 
taken. It is one of the few trees that give us autumn color near San 
Francisco, and loads of the colored foliage are taken from the San 
Mateo peninsula to the San Francisco florist shops in the fall. The 
acorns are bright chestnut in color and slender, have close, scaly 
