The Philippine Journal of Science 1914 
404 
December, 1918, but in April, 1914, there were beginnings of the 
development of the strand associations near the shore. A short 
distance from the water on the sides of two gullies were half 
a dozen clumps of Saccharum. 
South of this, including all the land west of the crater clear 
to the shore, and southwest of the crater from a short distance 
south of the low ridge south of Mount Balantoc quite to the 
southwest corner, the land was plantless through December, 
1918. Even by April, 1914, there was but the most meager 
representation of Saccharum in the vicinity of Gunao Point and 
near the shore south of Mount Tabaro. This was the region 
of severest devastation. 
The walls of the crater in the center of the island are very 
steep, although seldom rising sheer from the bottom to the top. 
In many places strata are clearly shown, especially in wet 
weather. For geological treatment the reader is referred to 
Adams.®° The foot of the crater wall is everywhere hidden by the 
masses of ash and mud which have been washed down. The 
accumulation of this wash is considerable in the eastern part of 
the crater. 
The rocky floor of the crater is plantless, as were also the 
walls through December, 1918, but in April, 1914, at several 
places on the north wall, especially on ledges within the crater 
rim even 15 meters from the top, were well developed clumps of 
Saccharum, perfectly normal as far as could be seen from the 
distance necessarily intervening. Lower on another rock ledge 
on the north crater wall was a bush of Ficus indica, apparently 
about 1 meter in radius. No other plants were found, but 
there were many swallows’ nests and kingfishers were frequently 
seen. It is demonstrated that plants can grow inside the crater, 
although their present distribution is very limited. 
THE STRUCTURE OF THE VEGETATION 
Considering dynamic ecology more in detail, the revegetation 
of the island is proceeding along two main genetic lines, depend- 
ing on the drainage of the soil. A dry ground genetic series 
revegetates the shore with strand plants; it revegetates the 
slopes first with grasses and later with shrubs and trees. The 
second revegetates the damp ground of low places with marsh 
plants, mostly herbaceous in nature. The associations belong- 
ing to the former series inhabit the ash slopes and the uplands 
in general, while those of the latter are limited to the low areas 
* Philip. Journ. Sci. 5 (1910) Sec. A 57-116. 
