Resistance to Decay of Fijian Timber — Osborne 
545 
TABLE 4 
Decay Losses for Blocks of Durable Timbers Subjected to Second Decay Period 
TIMBER SPECIES 
MEAN PERCENTAGE 
WEIGHT LOSS 
Fomes lividus 
Coniophora olivacea 
8 weeks 
24 weeks 
8 weeks 
24 weeks 
Palaquium hornet 
0.5 
7.5 
0.1 
1.3 
Eucalyptus microcorys* 
0.6 
4.2 
0.5 
1.0 
Intsia bijuga 
2.4 
32.6 
0.2 
-0.3 
Fagraea gracilipes 
0.9 
6.4 
1.8 
4.2 
Tectona grandis* 
2.6 
22.6 
0.3 
2.7 
Syzygium, spp. 
4.0 
34.2 
2.1 
14.3 
Eucalyptus obliqua * 
6.7 
51.1 
3.2 
14.8 
Dacrydium elatum 
4.3 
32.3 
0.3 
2.8 
Podocarpus neriifolius 
4.4 
29-4 
4.3 
13.1 
Garcinia myrtifolia 
5.6 
51.1 
1.5 
17.9 
Heritiera ornithocephala 
7.0 
44.6 
4.2 
13.1 
Swietenia macrophylla 
— 
— 
3.9 
19-2 
* Non-Fijian timbers included for comparison. 
between the species or groups can be made from 
these durability results. Although Acicalyptus 
myrtoides belongs to the small-leaf group, tests 
carried out by the Division of Forest Products, 
csiro, show that this timber has different 
strength properties from all other species of 
yasiyasi. However, as far as natural durability 
is concerned, it is not possible from the present 
data to distinguish A. myrtoides from the other 
species, since only one tree was tested. 
It may be noticed that Eucalyptus citriodora 
showed rather low decay resistance. This is due 
to the fact that the specimens tested of two 
trees were sap wood (mean percentage weight 
losses 37.4 and 31.1 cf. 6.4 and 4.0 for trees 
where only heartwood was sampled). How- 
ever, since the sapwood in these trees extended 
for 4-6 inches from the bark, there would be 
sapwood present in most timber used for com- 
mercial purposes, and so the species will show 
low durability unless heartwood is carefully 
selected. 
The relationships between percentage weight 
loss, basic density, and percentage water up- 
take were investigated, first by using a mean 
value for each timber species, and then by ex- 
amining relationships within a species. Statis- 
tical analyses showed that the correlations be- 
tween these factors were very similar to those 
found by Da Costa and Osborne (1967) for 
TABLE 5 
Decay Losses for Individual Trees of Syzygium Species Complex 
GROUP 
BOTANICAL SPECIES 
MEAN 
PERCENTAGE WEIGHT LOSS 
FOR EACH TREE 
Yasiyasi 1 
Syzygium nidie Guill. 
5.8 
14.9 
4.6 
(Small-leaf group) 
Eugenia effusa A. Gray 
1.8 
0.6 
6.0 0.9 
Acicalyptus myrtoides A. Gray 
0.0 
GROUP MEAN 
4.3 
Yasiyasi 2 
S. curvistylum (Gill) Merr. et Perry 
2.8 
(Medium-leaf group) 
S. fijiense L. M. Perry 
3.5 
S. brackenridgei (A. Gray) C. Muell. 
3.8 
Acicalyptus longiflora A. C. Smith 
2.6 
A. eugenioides (Seem.) Drake 
6.0 
A. elliptica A. C. Smith 
4.0 
1.5 
GROUP MEAN 
3-5 
