IX.A.6 Brown and Mathews: Dipterocarp Forests 443 



from 1 to 2 kilometers from the edge and up to elevations of 

 200 meters. They have been so heavily logged that the main 

 canopy has almost entirely disappeared and only remnants of 

 the lower stories remain. The entrance of light to the forest 

 floor in these places has permitted a tremendous development of 

 climbing bamboo, rattans, and vines of various kinds (Plate 

 VIII, fig. 2). The trees are mostly small, but are fairly numer- 

 ous. The forest is, therefore, a low dense tangle. The drying 

 out of the soil in such situations prevents the easy germination 

 of high-forest species, and although logging has practically 

 ceased, the jungle growth still maintains the upper hand and 

 the change back to a forest of commercial species is being ac- 

 complished very slowly. 



The forest lying next to this belt and up to 400 meters in 

 elevation has been logged over more slowly, and although the 

 best specimens of the dipterocarps, with the exception of bag- 

 tican-lauan, which here has probably always been the dominant 

 species, have been almost entirely removed, the climatic condition 

 of the forest has not been seriously changed and the smaller 

 classes of the more valuable species are present in sufficient num- 

 bers to insure the reproduction of the original type of forest if 

 placed under management (Plate I, fig. 1, and Plate IX, fig. 1). 



Above 400 meters logging has not been carried on to any 

 considerable extent and what is probably the original character 

 of the forest remains unchanged. Scattered specimens of bag- 

 tican-lauan are to be found as high as 600 meters, but here species 

 of Quercus and Dillenia are more prominent. At 800 meters 

 these species occur less frequently, and the forest begins to 

 change into the mossy type which extends from an elevation 

 of approximately 1,000 meters to the summit of the mountain. 



The following stand table (Table X), compiled from data gath- 

 ered at an elevation of approximately 140 meters, shows clearly 

 the character of the forest after selective logging has been 

 completed. [See pages 444 and 445.] 



Out of a total of 319 trees 15 centimeters and over in diameter 

 on 1 hectare, only 4 dipterocarps are reported, 3 of these being 

 of one species, Parashorea plicata (bagtican-lauan) . The volume 

 is extremely low (122.83 cubic meters), and as may be judged 

 from the fact that over 50 per cent of the volume lies in the 

 diameter classes below 40 centimeters, the main canopy has al- 

 most entirely disappeared. Furthermore, the extremely mixed 

 character of the stand is well illustrated by the fact that 61 per 

 cent of the stand by volume is distributed throughout 27 listed 

 species, while the remaining 39 per cent is distributed among 



