. Discovery. Science. DISCOVERY 87 with volcanic ashes to a depth of from 90 to nearly 200 ft. We are assured by scientific men who visited the remnant of the island in 1883 that no living thing could possibly have survived. Thus ended a tragedy in which the actors were the volcanic forces hidden below a mountain clothed with a tropical jungle. A " Miracle of Earth Re-clad " From this stage onwards we are able, partially at least, to follow the steps of botanical reconstruction, to follow Nature as she " strewed flowers upon the barren way " and worked the " miracle of
. Discovery. Science. DISCOVERY 87 with volcanic ashes to a depth of from 90 to nearly 200 ft. We are assured by scientific men who visited the remnant of the island in 1883 that no living thing could possibly have survived. Thus ended a tragedy in which the actors were the volcanic forces hidden below a mountain clothed with a tropical jungle. A " Miracle of Earth Re-clad " From this stage onwards we are able, partially at least, to follow the steps of botanical reconstruction, to follow Nature as she " strewed flowers upon the barren way " and worked the " miracle of earth re- ; In 1886, three years after the catastrophe, a Dutch botanist, the late Professor Trcub, visited the mountain slopes with a slimy film which enabled the spores and seeds of the higher plants to obtain a hold on life. It was afterwards found that bacteria and moulds were introduced at an early stage and played their part as an advance-guard for the army of more highly organised members of the plant kingdom. In 1897, fourteen years after the sterilisation of the island, another visit was paid to Krakatau : sixty-two species of vascular plants were collected, that is, plants higher in the scale than mosses ; since 1886 there had been many new arrivals and in places the groimd was covered with vegetation. Nine years later, in 1906, a party of botanists spent some hours on the island, and a full account of their work was subsequently published. \ I. it- -I â 1 .: M - , - : V ;; <'i' krakatau, photographed hy PROFESSOR NINETEEN YEARS AFTER THE ERUPTION. By hind permission of the Cambridge University Press. island : he found a few pioneers already established on the beach and others in the interior of the island, both ferns and flowering plants. The plants near the sea had germinated from seeds washed up on the beach and carried from neighbouring islands by currents, while those farther inland possessed fruits or seeds adapted to dispersal by wind.
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