Philippine Woods Identification 329 



tification is the structure as shown in the cross section. The 

 Chinese, FiHpino and Spanish lumbermen had no notion of any 

 means of identification other than examining the texture, color, 

 odor, taste, hardness, etc., with the aid, in occasional species, of 

 some special feature, such as colored deposits in the pores, pecu- 

 liar oils or resins, etc. Most Americans, new to the country and 

 ignorant of even the existence of a science of wood technology, 

 had no recourse but to follow their example. 



Philippine Woods was followed, in 1909, by Indo-Malayan 

 Woods, by the same author. This work gives a bird's-eye view 

 of the woods of the whole Indo-Malayan region, with special 

 reference to the Philippines, and is illustrated with over one 

 hundred photographs like those of the former work, about ninety 

 of the illustrations being of Philippine species. The most inter- 

 esting and valuable single feature of the book is probably the 

 very comprehensive treatment of the family Dipterocarpaceae. 

 This family, by far the most important in the Indo-Malayan 

 region, had been sadly neglected in the Philippines under the 

 Spanish regime and in fact it was only at about the middle of 

 the past decade that its importance began to be fully realized. 



Since the above, no important works have been published bear- 

 ing directly on wood identification. Bulletin 10, Bureau of For- 

 estry, The Forests of the Philippines, by H. N. Whit ford, con- 

 tains short descriptions of the gross characteristics of the species 

 described in Part II, Bulletin 11, Bureau of Forestry. Uses of 

 Philippine Woods describes only the gross structure of the hun- 

 dred and forty-odd woods mentioned in it, as do also the Descrip- 

 tive Leaflets issued with hand specimens distributed by the 

 Bureau. The Philippine Craftsman, December, 1912, published 

 an article by the present writer, entitled Methods of Identification 

 of Philippine Woods, which described some eighty odd woods, 

 but little of the material was new, the article having been written 

 principally to make easily accessible to laymen the knowledge 

 scattered through various more or less technical works. 



To an audience of foresters, wood-technologists and others 

 interested in related subjects, it is not necessary to say that all 

 this extensive collecting and study of wood specimens is not a 

 mere academic matter, but has many and extremely practical 

 applications. But some one may ask just what some of these 



