510 jOUKXAL Ol- FORESTRN' 



dalena River some 480 miles from the coast. The upper story of this 

 is more compact than were the forests of the flood-plains. In places the 

 canop)-^ of the upper story was almost completely closed and was thus 

 not unlike the dipterocarp forests of the best type in the Philippines. 

 The stands of timber in the stretch of forest that I passed through 

 would average 20,000 board feet per acre and large areas would aver- 

 age much higher than this. After a little §tudy of the forest, it soon 

 became apparent to me that one species (possibly two), known locally 

 as coco de mono (English name, monkey pot), was the most common 

 large tree in the forest. I counted hundreds of these trees, while 

 numerous other species v/ere represented by a few individuals. Among 

 these can be mentioned the cedro, or Spanish cedar {Cedrela bogo- 

 tensis). and mahogany (Szvietenia macro phylla) . Of the former I 

 counted 13 mature trees and of the latter only two. The monkey pots 

 belong to the genus Lccythis or closely related genera and are members 

 of the Brazil-nut family (Lecythidacese). The monkey pots form at 

 least 40 per cent of the volume of the forest. In the low foothills of 

 the eastern range of the Andes bordering the river plains, mixed with 

 the monkey pots is another species of the same family. This is 

 Cariniana pyriformis, known locally as albarco and in the United States 

 as Colombian mahogany. These two species alone constitute a very 

 large percentage of the volume of the forests. 



Anderson (3) in one of his studies of the forests of British Guiana 

 summarizes tree counts on a large number of "sectional surveys" in a 

 forest which he calls "forests clothing the plains and hills of the slightly 

 elevated country." This habitat evidently corresponds to the "terra 

 firma" of the Amazon and Magdalena valleys. The counts show that 

 out of an average of 133 trees to the acre, 30.5 trees, or nearly 23 per 

 cent of the stand, were composed of kakaralli, the local name for the 

 monkey pots (Lecythis spp.). Three other species constitute 21 per 

 cent of the stand, making in all for the four woods nearly 44 per cent 

 of the stand. In another type of a forest which he calls "forests of 

 the swamp lands" his count shows that one species, mora (Dimorphan- 

 dra mora), constitutes nearly 30 per cent of all the trees ; the first two 

 species on the list compose nearly 40 per cent and the first eight species 

 68.5 per cent of the total. 



Huber (4), in his description of the "terra firma" forests of the 

 Amazon Valley, mentions Lecythidacese as one of the most important 

 families producing a number of species that have a place in the upper 

 story. From his description I infer that the canopy of the upper story 

 is not closed entirely, but contains trees which reach a height of from 



