430 



Transactions. 



average for these four shows the greatest growth in the third of the 

 twenty-five-year periods. The tree C made its greatest growth in the 

 second period. Although I was able to count with sufficient exactness for 

 tabulation the rings on only four trees, I was able to count those on seven 

 other trees with sufficient approximation to exactness to show that the 

 averages of the different periods as ascertained for the four could not be 

 far wrong, if wrong at all, for the whole number. 



In order to see whether the growth of younger trees was proceeding at 

 the same rate I examined a number of saplings that had been felled. The 

 figures obtained are given in Table B, II. They are given for ten-year 

 periods, as the life of none of these saplings covered two full periods of 

 twenty-five years. Also, the figures are given for the longest radius only, 



350 



w o m 

 w tfl p« 



.Years 



o 

 o 



Podocarpus totara 



Nothofa^us fusca 



not for the diameter. The reason for this is that growth in nearly every 

 young tree of N. fusca is eccentric, and sometimes the amount of eccen- 

 tricity is great. The total length of the opposite radius, usually the shortest, 

 is noted. After from fifty to seventy-five years the eccentricity becomes 

 corrected by the unequal later growth. 



In Table B, I, the radial growth of the four big trees A, B, C, and D 

 is given for the first four periods of ten years. A comparison of the 

 Tables B, I, and B, IT, shows that the growth of the forest saplings is very 

 much slower than was that of the big trees. It seems likely that these old 

 trees were among the original members of the forest, and had a much more 

 abundant supply of light than they permitted their descendants to have. 



The view expressed at the conclusion of the preceding paragraph gains 

 support from examination of saplings grown without the competition of 

 older trees. Beside the road, and on the original road-clearing near the 



