TROPICAL FORESTS AND THE WAR 511 



30 to 50 meters. Among those that are especially mentioned besides 

 the Brazil-nut tree (Bertholettia excelsa) are species of Lecythis, 

 Cariniana, and AUaiitoma, all genera of. the Lecythidaceae. 



Huber (4) estimates the number of woody species in the Amazonian 

 basin at 10,000. Three- fourths of these, he states, are woody vines and 

 small trees, leaving 2,500 tree species distributed over an area nearly 

 the size of the United States, exclusive of Alaska. Evidently his small 

 trees would constitute the lower story of the forest that has been de- 

 scribed above. If the trees that reach only the height of the second 

 story were excluded, the number would doubtless be greatly reduced. 

 The qualitative analysis of the character of this vast forest region 

 leaves much to be desired from the lumberman's standpoint. If any 

 quantitative analysis of its composition has ever been made I have not 

 seen it. For reasons stated above, I believe that for the whole region 

 not more than 300 species would constitute the bulk of the timber, and 

 most of these would have woods so similar in character that they would 

 be mixed when placed on the market. For any given area that a lum- 

 berman would want to log, not more than ten species w^ould be found 

 to yield at least 80 or 90 per cent of the lumber. Although the above 

 examples of the character of the composition of the forests do not 

 break down the contention that tropical forests are very complex from 

 the botanist's standpoint, yet they do destroy the persistent myth that 

 they are complex from a forester's or lumberman's standpoint. In fact, 

 in some instances they approach closely the best deciduous forests of 

 temperate regions in simplicity of composition, and over large areas 

 could be made, and in some instances are being made, to yield larger 

 amounts of hardwoods per acre than do our own virgin stands of hard- 

 wood forests. 



The statement that the valuable woods of tropical forests "occur in 

 single individuals scattered among hundreds of other species, so that 

 to supply any considerable quantity of any one kind requires culling 

 over many acres, which renders them too expensive for general use." 

 has been repeated in many different ways. This statement is based 

 not on what the forests contain, but on what is found in the markets, 

 especially of Europe and the United States, and to a less extent the 

 tropical markets. True mahogany {Swietcnia spp.) is the best-known 

 tropical wood in the United States markets, and indeed is very scattered 

 in the forests, yet to judge the character and amount of the wood in 

 the forests from mahogany alone is surely erroneous. Ccdro. or Span- 

 ish cedar (Ccdrcla si)p.), is another valuable wood of tropical .\merica 

 that is well known in our markets. This wood is a very common one 



