BOTANY. 
31 
its conical form and great length, is readily distinguishable from that of any other species with 
which I am familiar. From their abundance and edible nature they form a very important 
part of the subsistence of the Digger Indians, and are collected and stored up by them for winter 
use; piles of many bushels being frequently seen in their rancherias. 
Quercus Densiflora. Hook. & Am. The California chestnut oak. 
Q. Densiflora. Hock. & Am. Bot. Beechey, p. 391. 
Q. Echinacea. Hooh. & Am. Bot. Whipples Bep.,p. 137. 
Fig. 8. 
Fig. 8. Branch with leaves and fruit of Q. densiflora, half natural size. 
Description. —An evergreen tree of small size ; leaves lanceolate, oblong ; smooth or dentate- 
serrate ; the younger ones tomentose beneath, becoming smooth. Male flowers in elongated, 
densely flowered aments ; fruit sessile, generally clustered ; cup densely covered with spreading 
or recurved elongated scales; acorn ovoid, sub-trigonal acute, 1-|- inch long, f inch broad; acute, 
testa very woody and hard, of a light yellowish-brown color. 
I have been quite unable to distinguish between Q. densiflora , described by Hooker and Arnott, 
(1. c.,) and Q. echinacea of Dr. Torrey. There is a perfect correspondence in their descriptions, 
and my specimens agree with both except in the minor characters specified in the description 
given. 
The resemblance to a castanea which this oak exhibits is, as mentioned by Hook. & Arn., very 
striking. The leaf is very like that of a chestnut, and the male aments, at the base of which 
a cluster of acorns grow, the bristling spines of the capsules and the sub-trigonal hard shelled 
acorn, closely resemble the flowers and fruit of Castanea chrysopliylla, the chinquapin of 
