Nov., 1918] Recovery of Vegetation at Kodiak 49 



This curious distribution of moss is apparently due to the 

 fact that the spores found lodgment in the cracks. The same 

 moss often starts around fallen sticks or other objects which 

 wind-borne spores would settle. One of the most striking 

 instances of this was a sea-urchin shell, dropped by a raven, 

 which was embedded in a mass of moss that had grown up 

 around it. 



SEEDLINGS OF ALL SORTS STARTING IN THE FOREST. 



In the forest the trees protect the ground from the wind, 

 and insure a stable surface on which new plants can start. 

 It was sometime after the eruption, however, before seedlings 

 made their appearance in any numbers even in the most pro- 

 tected situations. None were observed in 1913 and in the 

 beginning of the season of 1915 they were very few and far 

 between. But during the latter part of the season of that 

 year, they began to appear in numbers. These seedlings 

 included representatives of all the important members of the 

 flora including among others: Picea sitchensis, Alnus sinuata 

 (see page 29) ; Populus candicans, Rubus spectabilis (see page 30) ; 

 Calamagrostis langsdorfii (see page 50) ; Deschampsia caespitosa 

 (see page 44) ; Archangelica officinalis, Heracleum lanatum, 

 Echinopanax horridum, Lupinus nootkatensis (see page 55); 

 Sanguisorba sitchensis, Solidago lipida, Agrostis hiemalis (see 

 pages 23 and 27); Agrostis meleleuca and Chamaenerium 

 angustifolium, (see page 30). All of these except the last 

 were common in many places. 



The presence of large numbers of such a variety of seedlings 

 dispelled all doubts which may have previously been enter- 

 tained concerning the ability of seeds of plants to germinate 

 in the ash.- Almost without exception, moreover, they weathered 

 the drought of the first summer, which was unusually severe 

 for that region and were in good condition when we left the 

 field in September. But they were not yet sufficiently abundant 

 to be of any ecological consequence and it remained to be seen 

 whether they could survive the winter: 



SOME SEEDLINGS SURVIVED THE WINTER. 



The winter of 1915-16 was extremely long and severe. 

 The ice did not break up in the ponds until after the first of 

 May. The minimum temperature was not very low, only 

 +8 F., but the vegetation suffered severely. Many spruces, 



