22 COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



At/cm/ u/ii, Helichrysu'ni, Achyranthes, Aerua, and to fibre- 

 yielding 1 weeds such as species of Urena and Triumfetta. 



As regards the natural replacement of the timber trees and 

 other plants of economic, importance, 1 found that of the 

 Off rani, \Vaw-waw, Kaku, and Ddhomah to be excellent. The 

 mahoganies and cedars, though they seed freely, are not so 

 successful, as, owing to the dense undergrowth, the seedlings are 

 choked, and comparatively few reach the sapling stage. The 

 same difficulty occurs in the case of that fine timber tree, the 

 Baku. Where clearings have been made by felling trees in 

 the vicinity of the older cedars and mahoganies during the 

 ordinary course of exploitation and along the dragging paths, 

 quite a lot of seedlings of these two species spring up, and, if 

 the clearings are kept open for two or three seasons, as they 

 frequently are in the case of some of the main hauling roads, 

 a fairly large proportion get a sufficiently good start to enable 

 them to hold their own with other species in the struggle for 

 light. 



The density of stock of the different species is very variable, 

 being as high as two to three trees per acre in the case of the 

 trees mentioned as possessing excellent natural regeneration, 

 and as low as .25 to .1, approximately, in the case of the 

 mahoganies and cedars. The above estimates are only rough 

 approximations, and are useful more for showing the propor- 

 tion* in which the different species occur than as a basis for 

 calculating the quantity of growing stock. For the latter 

 many more surveys in greater detail are needed : the time at 

 my disposal was far too short to admit of such operations being 

 carried out. The above figures, however, are sufficiently accu- 

 late for the purposes of rough estimates. 



Tlie Age Gradations. 



Taken as a whole, these are not well represented, especially 

 in the case of the most valuable timber trees. Whole classes 

 are often missing, and the most frequent gaps occur between 

 saplings and trees of nu'dium age. The mahoganies and cedars 

 are usually worse off in this respect than the less useful species. 



Amongst the dominant kinds, trees such as the N'dic-tcaic, 

 the Kaku, the Dalwntali, and the Off rain have their age classes 

 fairly well represented; but even in their cases the gradations 

 are uneven and important gaps often occur. In the older 

 forests the bulk of the arboreal growing stock is over-mature 

 and regeneration tellings, carried out, with considerable care 

 and judgment, will be necessary before the forests can be 

 transposed into anything like the normal type. 



The younger forests are rather better off in this respect, but 

 the wholesale felling of the \vgitalion for fanning purposes 

 has generally resulted in favouring species that do not at 

 present happen to l>e of much economic importance. The 

 Struggle for dominance amongst the members that spring up 



