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It is only about twenty miles across country in a direct line 

 from Los Banos to the famous Taal volcano, whose eruption 

 in January, 191 1, caused the loss of fifteen hundred lives and the 

 destruction of an immense amount of property. The volcano 

 is situated on a small island in the center of a lake. Since the 

 original vegetation was almost entirely destroyed by the erup- 

 tion,* the island offers an interesting opportunity to observe 

 the reestablishment of vegetation, under conditions somewhat 

 similar to those on Krakatoa. 



It will be remembered that Krakatoa, whose vegetation has 

 attracted so much attention during the last thirty years, is 



Fig. 9. Shore of Lake Bombon on Taal Island, Philippine Islands, with 

 Phragmites Karka and Ipomoea pes-caprae. 



located off the west coast of Java, surrounded on all sides by 

 salt water, and separated from the mainland by a considerable 

 distance. Naturally the immigration of vegetation must go 

 on more slowly under such circumstances. From Taal to the 

 mainland, the width of open water is in no place more than four 

 miles, so that wind-borne seeds can be readily carried. 



Desiring to observe the condition of vegetation there after 

 nearly three years development, we started on October 24 from 



* For a graphic description of the eruption, with illustrations of the volcano 

 in action, see the article by Worcester, in the National Geographic Magazine for 

 April, 1912. 



