The volume of a tree's crown represents the accumulated historic crown surfaces integrated over time and environmental conditions. As such the crown volume of a tree should be correlated to the stem diameter, which represents accumulated historic wood increment. This study examines the relationship between crown and stem metrics of four tree species,Macaranga peltata, Schumacheria castaneifolia, Shorea megistophylla, andShorea trapezifolia, from an evermoist forest in southwestern Sri Lanka.Shorea megistophyllahad the highest correlation between crown volume and stem diameter of the four species (r2= 0.55). The addition of an inverted parabola, to represent historic crown surfaces not included by the current crown volume, improved correlations with stem diameter significantly, especially in the flat-topped pioneer species,Macaranga peltata. Schumacheria castaneifoliashowed poor correlations between stem and crown dimensions, suggesting that allocation to fruit and flower production may receive higher priority than diameter growth. The relative importance of current crown volume and cumulative crown volume in explaining variation in stem diameter offers insight into species life-history patterns.