36 Oomsis Edewawa down with fever today. With one boy, visited the same general area as yesterday, mainly to see a stand of Hopea trees which were left for telephone poles, flagstaffs, and similar uses when the other hardwood timbers (mainly Anisoptera) were cut. The Hopea, sterile now and leaves much eaten by insects, grows into beautiful straight sticks, the largest I saw not more than 18 inches diameter. Tree cutting was necessarily slow ith only one axe at work. Collected only 10 spp., among them two Lauraceae, a Rhodamnia, ?Prainea, and purple Dendrobium cf. veratrifolium the most interesting. This area is very rich indeed in its abundance of dipterocarp trees (principally Anisoptera; Hopea locally). The commercial stand is so thick in places that after logging the forest is almost completely wrecked. There are no plans for reforestation. -How- ever, the trees that are left seem stimulated to flower, or at least are more easily visible than in the undisturbed forest, and the disturbed areas offer good botanizing. I am getting fair catches of insects in the light trap. With the turnover in native personnel, and the necessity to pay first attention to training the new boys as botanical helpers, diurnal insects have not had much attention lately. I catch a few every day when waiting for my boys to cut down trees. My hopes that John would develop an interest in using a net on dragonflies and butterflies have not yet materialized. Last night's trapping, with three Melomys and two Rattus ruber, was Van's best so far on the trip. Also in traps 2 R. exulans, and a small bandicoot which got caught during the day and pretty eaten up by ants. Tonights dusk shooting produced a second specimen of the big Taphozous. A trial flower-flower boy who was paid off Saturday morning and has been bludging on Schultz's caretaker ever since, brought in a live specimen of the smallest Miniopteris, and was paid a stick of tobacco for it. Wednesday, April 29. No rain in the 24 hours ending 6 pm except a sharp downpour for a few minutes after 11:45 last night which again flooded my light trap before I awakened sufficiently to dash downstairs. Fog low in the valley until after 8 am (same the last 2-3 mornings). Dull until after 11 o'clock, and no bright sun until late afternoon. No deflected SE wind up the valley today. Yesterday two cadet foresters, Bob Wright and Alan White came out for a two- week stretch at the timber exploitation camp at the Big Bends (Garagos Creek) under the tutelage of Bill Jenkins (5 miles up the road). They spent this morning with me, had lunch with us, and John drove them home after they had watched me prepare some of my plants. We worked down the main road, on timber exploitation roads which went in and out of the forest and onto the kunai to an elevation of perhaps 400 feet. The exploited timber seemed to have been mostly Anisoptera. Good young stands of straight Anisoptera and Hopea from about 8 to 15 inches diameter were left (I regretted not having my camera), also some kwila (Intsia bijuga) which would have been marketable in countries less rich in hardwoods. Striking plants of the forest included a fine red-flowered Schuurmansia (forest edges), my first Hoya for the trip (photographed), more of the striking climbing orchid Dipodium(also photographed), and a big-fruited, excurrent substage tree which I think is in Mabaceae (Diospyros?, but no black in the wood). My brief look at the kunai yielded mostly the usual run of grasses and herbs of the secondary grasslands of low elevations (see field catalogue). There was also a big pubescent Euphorbia (Chamaesyce) entirely new to me. The dominant Themeda australis of the grasslands grew to over a meter high and seemed not have been burnt for a year or two. No trees grew on these man-induced grasslands.