APPLICATION OF PHYTOSOCIOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES 315 



ern, sea-facing slope of hills that are outliers of the Serra do Mar lying only 

 a few hundred meters above sea level. Although there has been considerable 

 disturbance of the forest in the region, the tract studied was said to be un- 

 disturbed original forest. The vegetation map by Maack (1950) shows the 

 Serra do Mar to be covered by tropical, and this far south by sub-tropical, 

 rain forest. As one moves southward along the coastal mountain rain forest 

 there is no sharp break in type that is correlated with the Tropic of Capricorn. 

 At this station we were assisted by Padre J. Moure, S.J., of Curitiba. Time 

 did not permit the study of a large plot, yet the species-area relationship of 

 the six sub-plots, each 200 sq. m., indicated that we had a fairly satisfactory 

 sample of the local type. Every vascular species observed on the plot was 

 collected. Our data for trees are presented by common names of the species, 

 and other entities determined as to life-form and leaf-size class are not listed, 

 for we do not yet have technical identifications for the majority. This does 

 not affect the central purpose of this paper, the comparative study of life- 

 form and leaf-size class in various samples of rain forest. 



Table 21 shows the distribution of the 90 species of the plot among the 

 life-form and leaf-size classes. As at Alto do Palmital, megaphanerophytes are 

 missing. The phanerophytic class as a whole has 53.2 per cent of the species, 

 and with the addition of the lianas and epiphytes in the appropriate height 

 classes, the total is 86.4 per cent. Lianas are seen to be relatively abundant, 

 being twice the percentages at Mucambo and Alto do Palmital. Leaves average 

 larger than at Alto do Palmital and about the same size as at Mucambo. 



The plot held 66 trees with trunks 1 dm. or larger d.b.h. distributed among 

 21 species. Couvatan was found on all six sub-plots with 12 stems; Guamirim 

 on five sub-plots with 10 stems; and Lucurana on four sub-plots with 10 

 stems. All other species were found on fewer plots and had one to four 

 stems. Basal-area calculations showed Couvatan to be the leading species 

 with 97.88 sq. dm. {!?>.?, per cent). Only two other species had significant 

 percentages of basal area: Lucurana with 94.87 sq. dm. (22.6 per cent), and 

 Guapiruvu with 59.63 sq. dm. (14.2 per cent). The fact that three species 

 compose 60 per cent of the basal area is rather unusual in rain forest. On a 

 basis of the sample plot this type of rain forest would have 35 sq. m. basal 

 area (375 square feet) per hectare and 14 sq. m. (150 square feet) per acre 

 (table 22). 



HoRTo BoTANico DO Instituto Agronomico DO SuL. In July, 1955 the 

 senior author visited the Instituto Agronomico do Sul in connection with the 

 V Congresso Brasileiro de Cicncia do Solo and was taken to the natural forest 

 of the Horto Botanico by Dr. Jose da Costa Sacco, botanist of the Instituto. 

 We returned to Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, later in the year and were mate- 

 rially assisted by Dr. da Costa Sacco in a study of the forest. Table 23 gives 

 the percentages of the 140 species in each life- form and leaf-size class. Pelotas 



