NOTES ON IDENTIFICATION OF TROPICAL WOOD 



48- 



a long time in reaching the public, but 

 they are manifest to all, and you may 

 well rejoice in the beneficence and 

 spirit which give you an opportunity 

 to make your institution one of the 

 agencies through which shall come the 

 restoration and conservation of our 

 forests. 



The work that associations and so- 

 cieties may perform is such as the other 

 instrumentalities named are not espe- 

 cially seeking to accomplish, for that of 

 the former is mainly along esthetic 

 lines. The efforts of associations and 

 societies lead to an appreciation of the 

 beauty of the wooded landscape, the 

 opportunities the forests offer for na- 

 ture study, and their enjoyment as 

 places of amusement, recreation, and 

 health resorts. Though not what com- 

 mercial forestry mainly seeks, their 



work is of great importance. Yet som 

 of these, like that of the Pennsylvani 

 Forestry Association, have taken up th 

 practical as well as the sentimental fea 

 tures of forestry and have accomplishe 

 much good. 



Lastly, is the individual. Here, a 

 well as elsewhere in all societies, corr 

 munities, and nations, the height whic 

 each attains and keeps is practically ths 

 of the average individual composin 

 them. Our forestry advance will b 

 just what the average individual er 

 deavors to make it, and you and I mu< 

 take upon ourselves the work that i 

 to be done as though the burden wer 

 ours alone, to the end that this nation : 

 prosperity shall be continued and mair 

 tained and new forests grown for thos 

 who are to come after us. 



NOTES ON THE IDENTIFICATION OF 

 A TROPICAL WOOD 



By C, D, MELL, Assistant Dendrologist, Forest Service 



S 



UCOPIRA is an empirical name 

 of a Brazilian wood submitted for 

 identification, with the object of 

 ascertaining its botanical name and of 

 learning something about the distribu- 

 tion and occurrence of the tree and its 

 commercial importance. The sample 

 was collected by Mr. H. von Bayer, in 

 Para, Brazil., and has no other data ex- 

 cept that it was cut from the heartwood 

 of a log about two feet in diameter and 

 that the wood is occasionally imported 

 into Europe for the manufacture ol 

 walking canes. 



The common or trade name of a wood 

 often aids in determining its botan- 

 ical name, but entirely different woods 



t Systetna Material M edicts Vegetabllis Bra- 

 ziliensis, Composnit Car. Frid. Phil. De Mar- 

 tins. Lipsise, 1843. 



2 Archiv der Pharmacie. Januar, 1862. 



often have the same common name, an 

 very careful study and comparison ar 

 therefore necessary before one can t 

 sure that an identification is correc 

 After a long search in botanical liter; 

 ture, it was found that Doctor vo 

 Martius 1 described in his Matcria Mec 

 ica a Brazilian tree called Sebipir; 

 Sicopira, Sebupira, Sebepira, Sepipir; 

 Sucopira, or Sicupira,botanically know 

 as Bowdichia virgiloides H. B. K. 

 was not safe, however, to conclud 

 without further technical investigatio 

 that the tree from which this wood WE 

 taken is a species of Bowdichia. 



Pecholtz 2 made a study of Sicopir 

 gum, and in this connection describe 

 the wood of the Sicopira tree as bein 

 hard, heavy, very resinous, and highl 

 esteemed in Brazil for all kinds c 

 building purposes. He also stated thj 

 the stems yield a fluid known by th 



