OAK FAMILY 
73 
is hard, heavy and moderately strong. It is used for firewood and char¬ 
coal. Foliage branches are cut from the trees for browsing to save range 
cattle in the starvation years in California. 
7. Q. wislizenii A. DC. Interior Live Oak. Tree 7 to 11 m. high: 
leaves broadly oblong to lanceolate, entire or spinose-toothed, mostly 2.4 
to 3.6 cm. long; acorn 2.4 to 3.6 cm. long; nut slender-conical, acute; 
cup top-shaped or almost tubular, the scales thin.—Interior streams and 
foothills. The wood is tough and strong but rots quickly in contact with 
soil. It is used extensively for firewood. 
8. Q. kelloggii Newb. California Black Oak. Tree 5 to 10 m. 
high; leaves elliptic or obovate in outline, pinnatelv parted by sinuses 
into 5 to 7 lobes with bristle-pointed teeth, 7.2 to 16.8 cm. long; acorn 2.4 
cm. long; nut broadly oblong, obtuse; cup deeply hemispherical.—Valleys 
and mountain ridges. The wood is heavy and hard and is sometimes used 
for wagon parts by rural artisans. 
2. LITHOCARPUS Bl. Tan Oak 
Evergreen trees or shrubs with erect catkins. Catkins wholly stami- 
nate, or with pistillate flowers at the base of some of the catkins. Pistil¬ 
late flowers 1 in an involucre. Fruit an acorn, the cup with linear or 
subulate spreading scales. (Greek lithos, rock, and karpos, fruit, refer¬ 
ring to acorn.) 
1. L. densiflora H.&A.) Rehd. Tan Oak. Tree 6 to 30 m. high; leaves 
oblong to elliptic-oblong, tomentose when young, 4.8 to 12 cm. long, with 
conspicuous parallel nerves ending in the teeth of the margin ; acorn 1.8 
to 3 cm. long; nut oval; cup shallow.—Coast Ranges, toward the coast. 
The bark is a valuable tanning agent in the production of high grade 
heavy leather; about 20,000 cords are used annually in California. The 
wood is straight-grained and white and is sometimes used for flooring. 
3. CASTANOPSIS Spach. Chinquapin 
Ours evergreen trees or shrubs. Leaves entire. Catkins erect, some 
of them wholly staminate, some with pistillate flowers at base. Stami- 
nate calyx 5 to 6-parted, the stamens mostly twice as many. Pistillate 
flowers 1 to 3 in an involucre which becomes a spiny bur enclosing the 
nuts. Fruit ripening the second season. (Greek kastanea, chestnut, and 
opsis, resemblance.) 
1. C. chrysophylla A. DC. Giant Chinquapin. Tree 15 to 25 m. 
high; bark thick and rough; leaves oblong, mostly acute at both ends, 
usually long-pointed, 6 to 13 cm. long; involucre irregularly 4-valved: 
seed edible.—Mountains of Mendocino and Humboldt Cos. Var. minor 
Benth. Golden Chinquapin. Shrub 8 to 43 dm. high; leaves trough¬ 
like, very golden below.—Rocky ridges and slopes, Monterey to Hum¬ 
boldt Co., mostly near the sea. 
2. C. sempervirens Dudley. Bush Chinquapin. Spreading, shrub 3 
to 23 dm. high with thin smooth brown bark; leaves mostly plane, oblong, 
sometimes lanceolate-oblong, usually obtuse, 3.6 to 7.2 cm. long.—Dry 
mountain slopes or rocky ridges, but not near the sea. 
