BRAZILIAN WOODS: THEIR UTILIZATION FOR THE 

 MANUFACTURE OF WOOD PULP^ 



The writer has more than once had occasion to traverse the forests 

 of several of the coastal regions of Central Brazil, and to stay for 

 months together in these regions. Some of them are exceedingly 

 mountainous ; on leaving the littoral the ground abruptly becomes very 

 much broken, and is almost always heavily wooded. One sees at first 

 what the Brazilians call capoeiros, which extend for a mile or two from 

 the coast ; then comes the real virgin forest. The other regions, espe- 

 cially towards the north, consist of sloping shores of a greater breadth — 

 perhaps 15 miles or so — giving place to low hills crowned by plateaus 

 known as chapadas, the whole covered thickly with timbers. The 

 states of Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo possess together an area of 

 approximately 60,000 square kilometers — say, 23,000 square miles — of 

 forests. Considerable portions of these forests, in the proximity of 

 communication facilities, have been stripped of the valuable woods 

 which they contained, such as red cedar, figured poroba, redwood, bal- 

 samwood, lemonwood, Brazil hickory, mahogany, tobacco ebony, black 

 rosewood, real rosewood, cow-wood, Brazilian oak, yellow boxwood, 

 goldwood, and others. Other parts, little explored yet readily acces- 

 sible, still hold a great quantity of these costly woods. A French com- 

 pany has just been found to exploit a forest region with an area of 

 over 3,800 square miles for, in particular, the cabinet woods which they 

 contain. 



In addition to the valuable essences, the construction timber and the 

 timber for railway sleepers, a large number of species are found in all 

 these forests which have absolutely no industrial applications ; some of 

 them might perhaps be of use as firewood. It is among such species 

 that the writer looked for those which would best lend themselves to the 

 manufacture of wood pulp. 



Woods Suitable for Pulping 



The following are the native names of the species which, in the 

 writer's opinion, are best adapted for that purpose. It is to be regretted 

 that neither in French nor in English is there any name for so many 

 species : Lenha branca, niorceguinho, cachete bicuyba, imbira guiaba, 

 gindyga, araga, anda-assu, tatu, barriga d'agua, almecega, catingo de 



1 Reprinted from the London Times, South American supplement. 

 624 



