GAMBEL OAK (_Quercus gambelii_) was destined by nature to occupy an inferior place in the country’s timber resources. It occupies a region of stunted vegetation among the dry mountains and plateaus of the Southwest, and except where it grows in better situations than usual, it is too small to be properly called a tree. It is at its best among the mountains of southeastern Arizona where it grows in canyons that can maintain a little damp soil. There it occasionally reaches a height of thirty feet and a diameter of a foot or less. In most other parts of its range it is simply a tangled, sprawling thicket of brush, covering the dry, rocky mountain ridges, and along the bases of cliffs. It is found from Colorado to western Texas, and westward into Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The leaves are small, thick, firm, and hairy, typical of desert foliage which must husband the scant water supply. The acorns are pretty large for a tree so stunted, and they are tempting bait for birds and rodents of the region. The acorns are sweet. If this oak’s reproduction depended on acorns alone it is doubtful if it would hold its ground in the face of perpetual adversity; but its roots send up distorted and stunted sprouts which cover the ground, affording hiding places for the few acorns which escape their hungry enemies. Man puts this oak to few uses. It affords a pretty good class of fuel for camp fires, but cordwood cutters cannot make much out of it. In rare instances frontier ranches use a few of the unshapely poles for corral fences, but only as a case of last resort. The names bestowed upon the tree by those who know it best are uncomplimentary. They call it shin oak, pin oak, scrub oak, mountain oak, and Rocky Mountain oak. [Illustration] FORKED-LEAF WHITE OAK [Illustration: FORKED-LEAF WHITE OAK] FORKED-LEAF WHITE OAK (_Quercus Lyrata_) The leaf gives this tree its name in the best part of its southern range. The tree bears much resemblance to the bur oak on the one hand, and swamp white oak on the other. The names by which it is known in different regions indicate as much.