186 The Philippine Journal of Science 1917 
Gates gives a very short account of the progress of revegeta- 
tion during 1911 and 1912. He did not visit the island until 
October, 1913, and does not give his source of information, the 
reliability of which is questionable as we know of no trained 
botanists who visited the Island during that period and the 
remembrance that untrained men have of their casual observa- 
tions is likely to be very poor evidence on a subject of this kind. 
In October, 1913, Gates found a wide strip of vegetation across 
the northern end of the island and also some vegetation at the 
extreme end of the peninsula at the southwestern corner. In 
many places, even in the above regions, the vegetation was very 
scanty. The remainder of the island was without plants. The 
vegetation seems to have consisted largely of a tall, coarse grass, 
Saccharum spontaneum, although trees and other plants were 
present in considerable numbers. The growth of Saccharum 
was apparently fairly dense in certain localities at low elevations. 
In describing these Gates says: 
At lower elevations the bunches occur nearer together until a fairly dense 
stand occupies the lower slopes, yet even in these places the great growth 
activity has not yet succeeded in obliterating the bunch-grass habit and 
covering the ground. ‘. 
The early appearance of vegetation in the northern part of 
the island is probably connected with the fact that here the 
effects of the eruption were less severe than elsewhere. 
Gates found no evidence to show that any of the grass had 
sprung from clumps existing previous to the eruption. His 
first visit was two and a half years after this event, so it is hardly 
to be expected that any such sign would have been noticeable. 
Probably most of the grass in this region was killed, but it seems 
quite possible that scattered clumps may have survived as this 
grass has characteristic, deep-seated rhizomes. Saccharum 
seeds during both monsoons. Therefore, if all of the first plants 
of Saccharum grew from seed coming from the mainland, we 
would hardly expect it to form such dense stands in a limited 
area and to have been so circumscribed in its early distribution. 
In localities where Gates found Saccharum occuring as scat- 
tering clumps in 1913 and 1914 this plant does not even now 
form dense stands nor do the individual clumps appear to have 
reached mature size. This would indicate that the dense stands 
of grass that Gates found in 1913 and 1914 would have required 
more than three years to develop from seed. Such clumps as 
survived may very well have been reduced in size to small tufts. 
Unfortunately the only observations on the revegetation of Taal 
