Common Trees of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

drawing and comparing the specimen with the Accordingly, some small trees often shrubby and
main distinguishing characters or, if needed, with not reaching sawlog size ha~e been included.
the detailed description of leaves, flowers, and
fruits. Otherwise, the use of the same common ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
name for unrelated tree species in different places
or misapplication of a name may lead to confusion.
Credit is due various persons of the United
The List of Tree Species with Descriptions and
States Forest Service, past and present, far their
Illustrations will also aid identification because it
assistmice in preparing this book and particularly
lists the species in the usual botanical arrangeto
Leslie R. Holdridge, who initiated the project,
ment with related trees together, alphabetically by
made extensive botanical collections. supervised
scientific names under each plant family. If the
dra~ving of numerous illustrations (also making
family is recognized, names of the examples with
a few), and mote the two preliminary volumes.
page numbers will be found in the List. Likewise,
In those volumes acknowledgment mas made to
an unknown tree resembling a known one should
assistance in the reparation of the material by
be sought in the same family.
personnel of Wor E Projects Administration Offi-
The Key to Families serves to place an unknown
cial Project No. 165-2-36-20.
tree in its plant family. This key includes the 68
Most of the black and white drawings were prefamilies
of this book and 20 additional small famipared
some years ago by several t~rtists employed
lies represented by only a few native tree species.
by the United States Forest Service and Work
Each family with two or more species illustrated
Projects Administration. Francisco Roena Santicontains
a key to these species for further identifia
o made more than 50 of these. In 1954 to comcation.
p f ete this volutne about 50 drawings were made by
The Special Lists may be helpful also in identi-
Edwin C. Rivera S. and 10 by FBlix Rosado. Five
fying trees with unusual characters or special uses.
others were prepared for a similar book on the
For trees not included, reference may be made
common trees of Venezuela by the senior author.
to Britton and Wilson's (5) flora of Puerto Rico
They are Ceiba pentandra. Terrninalia cata pa,
and the Virgin Islands, which contains both keys
mlcl Tecomn stnns by Ruby Rice Little and d moto
species and botanical descriptions. Also bo- carpus erectus and Avicennia nitida by Ellen de
tanical specimens of dried pressed twigs with
Jiirgenson. The drawing of Nectmnd?aa coriacea
leaves, flowers, and fruits, and with field notes (lowas
made by Jane W. Roller.
cality, altitude, date, common name, collector,
Assistance of the New York Botanical Garden
whether mild or planted, size, abundance, etc.)
in making determinations of the earlier botanical
may be forwarded to large herbaria or universicollections
is ap reciated. Acknowledgment is
ties for identification by specialists.
due the United d' tates National BIuseum for the
privilege of examining the large Puerto Rican
STATISTICAL -SUMMARY and Virgin Islands collections in the National
Herbarium.
The 250 species of common t.rees of Puerto Foresters, rangers, and others of both the
Rico and the Virgin Islands described and illus- United States Forest Service and Commonwealth
trated here are classified into 185 genera and 68 Division of Forests, Fisheries, and TQildlife have
plant families. Of these, 72 species, 38 genera, assisted the authors in field work and in checking
and 6 families are exotic, or introduced. These the common names. The authors are deeply ingenera
and families are not represented also by debted to Jose Marrero, of the Institute of Tropinative
species of trees or smaller plants. For fur- cal Forestry and coauthor of the Spanish edition
ther identific:ttion the 130 additional, related tree (BI), for his review of the manuscript and for his
species (including 10 introduced) of the &%me gen- Spanish translation. Credit is due Franklin R.
era am mentioned briefly and compared with Longwood of the United States Forest Service,
those illustrated. Thus, 380 tree species are in- for the detailed data on about 60 Puerto Rican
cluded for identification. To account for all native woods taken from his publications which appeared
tree species recorded by Britton and TTilson (5) in while this manuscript was awaiting public a t' ion.
these genera, 22 additional species of Eugenia and Distribution data by municipalities were com-
15 of illiconicr tire listed. A second volume is piled from the forest inventory of Puerto Rico,
planned to describe and illustrate the remaining which was conducted by the Commonn~ealth Divinative
tree species and widely grown exotics in sion of Forests, Fisheries, and Wildlife under the
these and other genera and in 20 other families. direction of Benjamin R. Seda. From these rec-
Numbers of tree species accepted for an area mill ords the distribution maps were made by Radl
depend l~potl tlle definition of a tree or minimum Ybarra C., of the Institute of Tropical Forestr
size considered. Tlrees may be defined as woody Alfonse Nelthropp, of Charlotte Amalie, &
plants having one erect perennial stem or trunk Thomas, has contributed many common names
at least 3 inclies (7.5 cetltimeters) in diameter a.t used in tlle Virgin Islands. Roy 0. Woodbury,
breast height (d.b.h. or at 41, feet or 1.4 meters), of the University of Puerto Rico Agricultural
a more or less definitely formed crown of foliage, Experiment Station, has checked and added to the
and a heiglit of at least 12 to 15 feet (4 meters). list of species growing also in southern Florida.