IX, C, 5 Gates: Pioneer Vegetation of Taal Volcano 395 
In a very limited number of well protected places the root sys- 
tems of a very few plants escaped death. 
With so thorough a sterilization of the soil, before vegetation 
could reappear the excess of acid had to be leached out of the 
soil and seeding accomplished. How much or how soon seeding 
took place is not known, but no vegetation appeared during 
the dry season immediately after the eruption. During the 
first rainy season the protected parts of the northeastern and 
northwestern areas began to recover. A few stumps sprouted 
and various seeds grew, producing a heterogeneous mixture in 
which tree species soon became dominant. 
Vegetation began to make its appearance in earnest, on the 
island as a whole, in the rainy season of 1912. In the extreme 
southern and in the northern parts, the strand became inhabited 
first with Ipomoea pes-caprae and a little later often also with 
Canavalia lineata. Later in the same rainy season, grass sprang 
up over wide areas on the north slope above the shore and 
extending upward to about 150 meters. The grass appeared 
over most of the area at about the same time, and with no 
opposition, rapidly became established and spread in all direc- 
tions. Not long after, shrubs and trees, particularly those dis- 
tributed by birds, made their appearance in isolated spots and 
spread rapidly both with and into the grass. 
By December, 1913, vegetation was quite well established on 
the northern side of the island to an altitude of about 175 meters. 
It consisted largely of grass—entirely dense at lower altitudes, 
but thinning and opening out above—parang, and trees. Over 
most of the vegetated areas parang was at least incipiently 
present, but in the northeastern and the northwestern regions it 
was best developed and had already driven out a considerable 
amount of grass. At this time there were no plants within the 
crater and but one very small patch at a place on the rim. At 
the southern end of the island, the strand was fairly well devel- 
oped. Grass and a little parang were present on Mount Binin- 
tiang Munti; but between it and the crater, as well as in the 
eastern and the western parts of the island, the ground was 
without vegetation. 
By April of the following year great strides were visible 
in the vegetation. On the northern slope virtually all of the 
ground except the crests of ridges and the bottoms of the valleys 
was vegetated. The proportion as well as the distribution of 
parang and trees had materially increased. Grass had con- 
tinued its invasion to the crater rim. Although not yet abund- 
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