Nov., 1918] Recovery of Vegetation at Kodiak 31 



must be spent in traveling expenses and the season for work is 

 short, it becomes an extremely important item. (7) Photo- 

 graphic records may readily be reproduced at small expense, 

 but hand made maps could be duplicated for the use of others 

 only at considerable cost. The loss of a set of quadrat plats 

 might upset the whole work, but a set of field prints, if lost 

 in the vicissitudes of exploration, would be missed only 

 temporarily. 



REVEGETATION DUE TO RECOVERY OF OLD PLANTS. 



It was supposed by all who visited Kodiak during the first 

 two seasons following the eruption, that the smaller herbaceous 

 plants had been practically exterminated, except for a few 

 individuals so situated that they could easily grow through 

 the ash layer. Consequently, when the remarkable new growth 

 of succeeding seasons was observed, it was natural to suppose 

 that the new vegetation must consist of new plants which had 

 started in the ash from seed. 



Field study, however, at once showed the incorrectness of 

 this view, for even the most superficial observation showed 

 that at the beginning of the fourth season (1915), there were 

 practically no seedlings, most of the new plants being directly 

 traceable to the old roots. The most striking large scale 

 demonstration of this fact is furnished by the condition of a 

 field on the Frye-Bruhn ranch, south of Kodiak, which was 

 plowed before the eruption. Where cultivation destroyed the 

 weeds, no new vegetation appeared for five years, but the plants 

 of the uncultivated land all around came up in undiminished 

 vigor and completely covered the ground. The difference 

 between plowed and fallow ground is so marked that it is 

 conspicuous as far as one can see. (See pages 32 and 33). 



Excavation of the underground parts of the new vegetation 

 always revealed either a characteristic "two-storied" root 

 system, or definitely showed the connection of the new stalks 

 with the old soil in those plants which do not put out new roots 

 at the surface of the ash. 



