TOUMEY OAK (_Quercus toumeyi_). No oak in this country has smaller
leaves than this. They are usually less than three-fourths of an inch
long and half an inch wide, and they hang on petioles one-sixteenth inch
long. The leaves have no lobes or notches. They remain all winter and
fall in the spring in time to make room for the new crop. The acorns are
nearly as long as the leaves and ripen in June of the first year. Few
persons ever see this oak, for its known range is restricted to Mule
mountain, in Cochise county, southeastern Arizona. It attains a height
of twenty-five or thirty feet, and a diameter of six or eight inches.
The trunk is not only small, but is of form so poor that it can never be
of value for anything but fuel. It divides near the ground into crooked
branches. The heart of the tree is light brown, the thick sapwood is
lighter.
WOOLLY OAK (_Quercus tomentella_) has apparently been crowded off
the American continent and has taken refuge on islands off the
southern California coast. As far as known, not a single tree stands
on the mainland, but several groves, with a few isolated specimens,
are found on Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and Catalina islands, where
they are huddled together in the bottoms of sheltered canyons. The
leaves are thick, leathery, and are toothed like holly. The trees
are evergreen. The acorns do not mature until the second season.
They are generally more than an inch long. The scarcity of this oak
relegates it to an unimportant place among commercial woods. This
seems unfortunate, for the appearance of the wood indicates that it
possesses excellent properties. No other oak looks like this wood.
It is decidedly yellow, and is dense and firm. The medullary rays
are different from those of any other oak. When seen in cross
section they are arranged in short, wavy lines, broadest in the
middle and tapering toward both ends. The pores are arranged between
the rays, and follow wavy lines also. Trees grow with fair rapidity,
and the largest on the islands are seventy-five feet high and two in
diameter.
BARREN OAK (_Quercus pumila_) is called dwarf black oak, or simply
scrub oak. Its habit of growing on barren land is responsible for
its common name which some people shorten to “bear” oak. It is one
of the poorest oaks of the East, and it seldom grows more than
twenty-five feet high and a few inches in diameter. Its range
follows the Atlantic coast southward from Mount Desert Island,
Maine, to North Carolina. It is probably more abundant on the pine
barrens of New Jersey than elsewhere. The trunks are too small to be
of use for anything but fuel.
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