IX, A, 5 Brown and Mathews: Dipterocarp Forests 457 



The wild banana mentioned is found over large areas in 

 Negros, but is not generally distributed over the Philippines. 

 This general type of second-growth forest is otherwise similar 

 to that in cut-over areas in most of the Archipelago, although 

 as previously pointed out the specific composition may vary. 



CLEARED AREAS IN BATAAN 



In the forest, previously described, in Bataan back of Limay, 

 a lumber company has been operating for the last five years 

 and has cut a strip 15 kilometers long, running from an eleva- 

 tion of about 50 meters to approximately 500 meters. An exact 

 determination of the successions is rendered difficult by the fact 

 that each year's cutting occurred at a successively higher level 

 and that the first stages have been observed only in the recently 

 cut areas. 



The trees of the dominant story of the dipterocarp forest 

 are not as large as those in Negros, and there is a greater 

 number of small trees. 



Until recently the cutting has been done with a lower diameter 

 limit of 40 centimeters, allowing the removal of all large trees. 

 A large proportion of the small ones were, at the same time, 

 killed by the falling of the cut trees. As in the cut-over region 

 in Negros, nearly all seedlings were killed by insolation and 

 most of the small trees became unhealthy and soon died (Plate 



X, fig. 1). The few remaining ones seem to stand small chance 

 of reaching maturity. Still further destruction has been caused 

 by the burning of the branches and leaves of the fallen trees 

 over large areas. This results in the death of all trees in the 

 burned area. 



Of the original forest, only a very few scattered specimens 

 of old defective trees and a few small unhealthy ones are left. 

 After the trees of the original forest have been removed, the 

 ground is quickly covered by seedlings of second-growth trees 

 (Plate X, fig. 2). A few herbaceous weeds enter the area, 

 but only two are prominent; namely, Panicum sarmentosum, 

 which as in Negros forms small patches particularly on the steep 

 sides of the railroad cuts, and Blumea balsamifera (sambong), 

 which is especially abundant in burned-over areas. Both of 

 these species are comparatively small, and apparently have but 

 little effect on the further development of the vegetation. 



The principal tree species is Homalanthus populneus (balanti 

 or banalo), which forms practically pure stands over much of 

 the area. Along with it are a number of other species, the 

 chief ones being Trema amboinensis (anabion), Macaranga 



