THE GREENHEART OF COMMERCE 



289 



nate, but one rarely sees greenheart saplings from 2 to 

 4 inches in diameter in the virgin forest. 



Those who have lived .among greenheart trees all their 

 lives, and who have watched them grow from year to 

 year have observed that the rate of growth of trees over 

 to 6 inches in diameter is exceedingly slow, and that 

 it varies according to the locality and soil. It grows 

 fastest in forests of deep, alluvial soil. Here the roots 

 can spread far and find more nourishment than in the 

 sandy clay region on the uplands. The rate of growth is 

 so slow that the annual rings on a transverse section of 

 a greenheart stem are not visible with a hand lens magni- 

 fying from 4 to 6 diameters, but from general observa- 

 tions it is known that even young trees on the hills and 

 drier slopes with soil or with rock near the surface, 

 grow very slowly. It is considered that at least 100 

 years are required for a greenheart tree to acquire a 

 merchantable size, and a good many of the large trees 

 that yield logs 24 inches square are doubtless over 300 

 years old. The period varies 

 much, however, in different 

 regions of its range of growth 

 and also upon immediate en- 

 vironment of the individual trees. 



Greenheart is known to occur 

 in British, Dutch and French 

 Guianas and in parts of eastern 

 Venezuela. The reports that 

 this tree is found in Brazil and 

 in Colombia have not yet been 

 authenticated, but it is quite 

 likely that it grows in Brazilian 

 Guianas near the mouth of the 

 Amazon. It grows chiefly on the 

 moist slopes and ridges where 

 the tops are exposed to the rays 

 of the sun. On the dry, exposed 

 ridges as well as in the wet soil 

 along the rivers, it becomes 

 scarce or disappears altogether. 

 In the regions where it occurs 

 most abundantly, the soil is a 

 sandy clay, or, in some localities, 

 almost pure sand and gravel. A 

 stiff clay soil with a sufficient 

 amount of sand to render it loose 

 is favorable to its complete de- 

 velopment. In the lowlands 

 where the soil consists of sand 

 and loam, greenheart occurs less 

 abundantly. 



In its habits greenheart may 

 be considered to be partly gre- 

 garious, for although it always 

 crows more or less intermixed 

 with other trees, it is generally 

 confined to certain areas of 

 rather limited extent. It may 

 constitute the prevailing tree for 

 a few hundred yards, but seldom 



for a mile continuously. Such localities are the moist 

 slopes that receive the moisture-laden air from the ocean, 

 and it is here where it attains its best development from 

 a commercial point of view. It is obvious that a tree 

 depending on so many local peculiarities cannot occur 

 continuously to any great extent. The Colonial Forest 

 Office of British Guiana determined by actual count that 

 on a sample area which contains greenheart in merchant- 

 able quantities, there were on an average about 150 tim- 

 ber trees to the acre, 32 of which were greenheart. 

 About 73 per cent of the greenheart trees were found 

 to range in circumference from 48 to 180 inches. Trees 

 which will not square 10 inches are not permitted under 

 the Crown Lands Regulations to be cut. 



The quantity of greenheart in British Guiana has been, 

 and still is, very great, although the lower forests have 

 been heavily worked, and now the best greenheart is 

 to be had only farther inland and in the less accessible 

 places above the cataracts in the rivers. This observation 



These large dock gates at 



MADE OF GREEXIIEART 



Wallsend on Tyne, England, are made of greenheart timber imported from 

 British Guiana especially for this purpose. 



