THE PHILIPPINE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, C. BoTANy. 
Vol. XII, No. 5, September, 1917, 
THE RATE OF GROWTH OF SOME TREES ON THE GEDEH, JAVA 
By WILLIAM H. Brown and Harry S. YATES 
(From the College of Liberal Arts, University of the Philippines and the 
Botanical Section of the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, — 
Manila) — 
A very excellent and complete method of labeling trees in a 
mixed tropical forest has been devised in Java by Dr. S. H. 
Koorders. The primary purpose of this scheme was to select and 
label fine typical specimens, of known diameter and height, so 
that they could be readily found and examined by any one 
interested in them. The system is so complete that any one 
visiting the area, even though for the first time and without a 
guide, should have no difficulty in finding any desired tree. 
Among the many areas, originally so labeled, is an extensive one 
on the Gedeh above the mountain station at Tjibodas. Doctor 
Koorders* has written a very full description of the labeled 
trees on this area, 
While the writers were on a recent trip (1917) to Java, Doctor 
Koorders, knowing that one of us had made a large number of 
measurements of the rates of growth of trees in the Philippines, 
suggested that it. would be interesting for us to remeasure some 
of his labeled trees on the Gedeh to ascertain how much they 
had grown in the twenty-seven years which had elapsed since 
they were first measured. As the time at our disposal was 
very short, we could measure only a small proportion of the trees. 
This was particularly so, as many of the trunks were overgrown 
with large vines. Moreover, it was not usually possible to de- 
termine accurately the rates of growth of the largest individuals 
as most of them had extensive buttresses which extended above 
the point where the measurements should have been made. . 
Doctor Koorders made the original measurements at breast 
height, or 1.8 meters above the ground. In order to obtain exact 
determinations of the rate of growth it would be necessary to 
be sure not only that the same point on the circumference was 
*Koorders, 8. H., Floristischer therblick iiber die Bliitenpflanzen des 
Urwaldes von Tjibodas auf dem Vulkan Gede in West-Java nebst einer 
Numerliste und einer systematischen Uhersicht der dort fiir botanische 
Untersuchungen von mir numerierten Waldbiume, Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 50 
1914) Suppl. 278-303. 
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