October 27, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



571 



few days ago, adding one more to the long 

 series, now more than forty, that Professor 

 Peck has prepared. One can not help a feel- 

 ing of admiration for the regularity with 

 which these reports have appeared, each with 

 its contribution of " plants added to the her- 

 barium," " contributors and their contribu- 

 tions," " species not before reported," " new 

 species and varieties," etc. When the writer 

 of this notice was a young college instructor 

 " Peck's Reports " were for him a source of 

 help and inspiration, as he strove laboriously 

 and painfully to know something of the fun- 

 gus flora of the middle west. Do the young 

 mycologists of to-day prize these New York 

 State Museum reports as much as did those 

 of the 70's and early 80's? The present re- 

 port contains a monograph of the New York 

 species of the genus Hyplioloma, and a simi- 

 lar monograph of the genus Psathyra. Four 

 good colored plates of the larger fungi are in- 

 cluded, two being of edible species. 



THE FORESTS OP THE PHILIPPINES 



A MOST promising beginning has been made 

 in our knowledge of the forests of the Philip- 

 pine Islands in the report made by Dr. H. N. 

 Whitford, to the Director of Forestry, Major 

 George P. Ahern, and issued as Bulletin 10 

 of the Philippine Bureau of Forestry (1911). 

 It consists of two parts, separately printed, 

 as Part I., devoted to Forest Types and Prod- 

 ucts, and Part II., The Principal Forest 

 Trees, each of about one hundred pages. In 

 his introduction the author says, " The object 

 of this bulletin is to bring together the most 

 important facts concerning the forests of the 

 Philippines and the exploitation of their 

 products." Rough reconnaissance work on a 

 large scale, and rough cruising over large 

 areas, with intensive valuation surveys over 

 certain small selected stands have afforded 

 the data upon which the report is based. The 

 author feels that his results are conservative 

 and fairly reliable. 



The family of plants of the greatest im- 

 portance in its growth of trees is the Diptero- 

 carpaceae, and " it is estimated that the dip- 

 terocarps include about 144,000,000,000 out of 



a total of 200,000,000,000 board feet of stand- 

 ing timber in the islands." When we remem- 

 ber that the number of species of trees of all 

 kinds on the islands is placed at about 2,500, 

 the significance of this dominance of the dip- 

 terocarps may be appreciated. It is thought 

 that not all of the species of dipterocarps have 

 been described. The trees of many of the 

 species are small, the author citing one case 

 where he collected 80 different species on one 

 acre, and of them but two species attained to 

 " merchantable size." 



It is interesting botanically to learn that 

 "more or less ill-defined rings of growth are 

 associated with those species that are wholly 

 or partly deciduous and which are intolerant 

 of shade." 



In one paragraph he says "there is little 

 question that practically the entire land area 

 of the Philippines, from sea level to the high- 

 est mountains, was originally covered with 

 unbroken forest growth of some kind," and it 

 is estimated that approximately one third of 

 the area is still covered with virgin forests 

 that have never been disturbed. About one 

 sixth of the area has grown up to second- 

 growth forests, making a total of fully one 

 half of the area of the islands in forests. Of 

 the other half probably 10 per cent, of the 

 whole area is under cultivation, the remainder 

 (40 per cent, of the whole) is now in grass 

 lands. These grass lands are kept so by re- 

 peated fires which kill all seedlings of woody 

 species, much as occurs upon our own prairies. 



Speaking of the dipterocarps the author 

 says that " practically all the species are large 

 trees, reaching heights of 40 to 50 meters, and 

 diameters of 100 to 150 centimeters or more, 

 and it is not rare to find even these dimen- 

 sions exceeded. They have straight, regular 

 poles, resembling in size and shape the Lirio- 

 dendron tuUpiferum. (yellow poplar or tulip 

 tree) of the United States." 



Many good plates (over 130) and a good 

 map of the islands add greatly to the useful- 

 ness of the report. Every botanist who has 

 any interest whatever in forestry will wish to 

 add this report to his library. 



