33 



TABLE XXIII. 



Stjrvey of the Forests of tiie Vailala River. 



Herbarium. 

 Number. 



Local Name. 



J. r 7 — - — - 



Scientific Name. 



Number 

 of Trees. 



Cubic Contents. 



Percentages of — 





Total 

 C.F. 



Per Acre 

 C.F. 



Per Tree 

 C.F. 



To Total 



Cubic 

 Contents. 

 Per Cent. 



To Total 

 Number 



Trees. 

 Per Cent. 



Acres 

 per Tree. 



5 



34 



278 

 279 

 300 



Okamu 



Ilimo 



Haikaka 



Sihu 



Oko 



Pometia pinnata 

 Octomehs sumatrana 

 Indt. 



Pterocymbium sp. . . 

 Dysoxylum pettigrewianinn . . 



Total 



87 



26 

 14 



20 

 30 



3,025 

 7,078 

 2,931 

 3,773 

 3,473 



" 



15-9 

 39-3 

 10-3 



20-9 

 19-2 



34 

 272 



209 

 188 

 116 



4-64 



10-87 



4*45 



5-7 

 5-33 



17-92 

 5-35 



2-88 



4-12 



1 6-18 



' 2 



1 • 7 

 13 



9 



6 





177 



20,280 



112-0 



114 



31-00 



36-00 



• • 



No. 332, poioro, is a fan palm, the only one I have 

 seen in Papua. The spread of its circular leaf, with 

 its fimbricated circumference, is 6-7 feet in diameter. 

 Two palms will thatch a house, and so it is much 

 prized. 



No. 333, pai-iru (Ileritiera lit t oral is), turned out to 

 be the same as No. 85, napera, of the Suku people. It 

 yields a dark brown, hard, handsome wood. 



No. 334, kavea (Homalium paehyUum), yields a uni- as foothill forests. 



No. 226, Wormia quercifolia, was represented by one 



specimen. 



My visit to the Vailala completed my inspection of 

 the rain forests regions of the Territory, and I next 

 visited the mountain forests. Before going on to de- 

 scribe the flora of this region, I will treat the country, 

 which lies between the lowland mixed rain forests and 

 the mid-mountain forests, and which I have designated 



formly brown wood of a hard constructional type. 



No. 335, urau (Dracontomelum sp.), yields a daik 

 brow 



foothill Forests. 



heavy. 



n, well-figured hard wood, 



very strong, 



ratner 



No. 336, lara (Elaeocarpas sp.), yields a pale, light, down often below 

 rather porous wood. 



No. .337, abagbua, a canoe wood tree. 



Those forests lie, roughly, between 1,000 and 5,500 

 feet. As I have already remarked, the boundaries are 

 by no means clear — the mid-mountain forests coming 



5,000 



feet, while the mixed rain 

 forest is continuously cropping up in alluvial gullies and 

 pockets in the mountains. 



No. 338, mahei (Canarium grandislipul latum) , yields are not at all 



an 



Indeed, the foothill forests 



easy type to describe. They lack 



character, and at times seem only a degenerated form of 



the rain forests of the lowlands ; the same species keep 



cropping up, and the only difference is that the foothill 



A -7- \ -ii i-i ra ^ n f° res t is a pole wood, or at best an assembly of 



No. 340, idare (Terminaha sp.), yields a wood with low> sma ll-girthed trees. One has just decided that 



such is the case, and is beginning to ascribe reasons for 

 the low quality of the rain forest, when patches of 



a pretty mouse-brown wood. 



No. 339 is the same as No. 318. (Kingiodendron 

 sp.). 



a cigar-box texture and grain. 



No. 341, hewara (Fiats sp.), a grey-brown wood, with 



few species met with 



found on the 



a satin sheen on the quarter. 



In addition to the above, a 

 in other parts of the Territory were 

 Vailala. In the first place, No. 9, cedar, occurred here 

 and there. Two were met with on the strips, and the 

 Keke people and some Ku-ku-ku-ku folk, who came 

 down to visit me, showed me stumps of trees they had 



cut for Mr. McDonald, and a few standing trees. As 



cedar country goes, this would, I suppose, be regarded 



purely foothill species are met with, and the rain forest 

 becomes quite dominated by what is certainly a different 

 type of woodland. Even at its best, the volume of 

 timber is small, and the foothill forest lacks quality ; 

 its height is low, and the trees do not attain the girth 

 they do in the rain forests of the lowlands or in the 

 mid-mountain forests higher up. There is still evidence 

 at this elevation that if the rain forest type of the low- 

 lands were given anything like favorable environmental 



as good for Papua. I estimate that there were about one conditions it would establish itself, ousting the foot- 



tree to 100 acres. No. 10, melila, was represented by 

 fifteen trees, and, while the bulk of these were in swamp 

 country, with the same queer root system as I have 

 noted about the Baroi melila, some were growing on 

 higher ground, and were of normal habit. Two 

 Flindersia, No. 15 — were seen. ■ The wood of this 

 species is rather like Queensland silver ash (F. schof- 



tuma). Leichhardt's pine, No. 19, was not common, 

 rare aremore, No. 22 (Horsfieldm sitvestris), was met 

 with, also specimens of No. 57, the cinnamon tree. 

 Another stereulareae in Pterygoid Forbesii, No. 24, was 

 found again, and of ccurse Alstonia scholar/*, here 



The I nn ? 



hill type proper. So it is that wherever there is a 

 valley with sufficient flat land for the river to deposit 

 alluvium, the rain forest of the Pometia type pre- 

 dominates, whatever the altitude, up to the cloud belt. 

 The foothill forests are driven to the rocky country, 

 the sharper slopes, the drier, poorer soils. Later I shall 

 show that precisely the same thing occurs to the hoop 



forests in the mid-mountain belt. Certain true 



lowland species are also found in the typical foothill 

 forests, and these I enumerate below : 



The most characteristic of the foothill trees is, I 

 think, the Quercvs Junghvhnii, which yields an oak 



n j - , i i , .i t ' xt tvpe ot wood, and does nor resemble a chestnut in any 



called arjapo, was represented, but rather poorly. No. • ' ' ,, .' ., . . • lol „.__ A tif • - . _:i 'i 



respect, despite the botanical genus that was first ascribed 



to it. It arrests the eye at once on account of its habit 

 of growth. It grows in clumps — sometimes an acre in 

 exient — and the ground beneath it is clear of under- 

 gro 



33, bara, a Diospyros that thrives above Galley Reach, 



and whose jet black bark is very distinctive, was found 



here also. No. 36, okaka (Term'nmHa catappoidis) , 



was represented by twelve trees, and, curiously enough, 



its brother, Terminalia okari, whose nut is such a deli- one forcibly "of a" forest in a" tern "iJerate climate. „_ 

 cacy, was also met with. No. 47, waiamahasi {Celtu bark is channelled, like a fluted' Corinthian pillar, and 



at its base it frequently throws out a petticoat of sucker 

 shoots, so heightening the illusion of an old-country 



for it resembles the lime in this respect. Its 



wth, and is only covered with dry leaves, reminding 



Its 



phlJippinensis) , is a tree I have now met everywhere in 



the rain forests. Specimens of the dipertocarp, No. 



136, karawa (Anlsoptera), so common in the Bunda dis- 

 trict, were comparatively rare on the Vailala. No. 170, leaves are long and narrow, and taper to a fine point, 

 the wild mango, is protected by the Vailala native. They are not divided Up with deep notches like the 



tree. 



