Forest trees of California - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt: ...of the leaves, the slightly pappillose roughened surface of the leaves like one's tongue; subsequently, if these fall away somewhat, still the scars abide, or the lingual roughness remaining, it simply bleaches out, and so changing color, becomes bluish bloomtinted, and on hills starry-hairy. These leaves, with some latitude of variation, are usually one to three inches long by an inch or more broad; all the young parts, it should be noted, are also more or less starry-haired. The thick leathery leaves are finely netted-veined above and below, the leaf-stipules linear-lance-spatulate-pointed, often bristlyherbaceous, plumy-hairy, one fourth to one half an inch long, or usually longer than the leaf-stems to the base of which they are attached. The catkins of male blossoms are short, often branched, their calyxes (flower cups) with roundish teeth; sparsely hairy, the margins eye-lashed, stamens short, five to ten anthers on top of these threads, large, strongly cusp-pointed, cells slightly hairy. The female acornproducing flowers, six-toothed, closely investing the embryo acorn, hairy and pimple-roughened on the back, scarcely a little scolloped on the margin; styles short, two to seven, erect; top-stigmas, broad, disc-form, emargined, or slightly notched on one side, color dark brownish purple. Acorns, solitary or in pairs, on short stems, one fourth to one half an inch long; mature acorns rarely set close down on the wood of the previous year's growth, and is what is termed a biennial oak, i. e., they mature their fruit the following season after flowering; yet both old and young acorns are seen on the trees at the same time. The cup is scarcely hemispherical, about one third the height of the acorn, one half to three fourths of an inch across,...