Photograph by D. B. Church 



A PLOWED FIELD, PART OF WHICH WAS CULTIVATED JUST BEFORE THE ERUPTION 



The line between cultivated and fallow ground remains perfectly distinct after four 

 years. Cultivation just before the eruption destroyed most of the weeds and no new ones 

 have been able to start. The uncultivated land has grown a mass of fireweed, whose bloom 

 is conspicuous for miles — illustrating the importance of residual vegetation. 



fore, it must not be supposed that the old 

 order of things has completely returned. 

 The new vegetation is not altogether the 

 same as that which was destroyed. It is 

 true that the species are the same as those 

 dominant before the eruption, but the 

 smaller species which formerly grew with 

 the dominant plants were unable to pierce 

 the ash blanket and were smothered. 

 This is particularly true in the bogs or 

 tundras, which formerly covered consid- 

 erable areas. Even four or five inches of 

 the ash was fatal to the bog plants, whose 

 extermination was so nearly complete 

 that it is difficult to find even individual 

 survivors. 



Thus while the salmon-berries and 

 high-bush blueberries are finer than ever, 

 the low-bush blueberries and cranberries 

 are entirely lacking. 



The exposed mountain tops were for- 

 merly covered with an alpine heath con- 

 taining many of the same species that 

 grew in the bogs, and to them the erup- 

 tion was similarly fatal. While the sides 



of the mountains are covered with ver- 

 dure, their tops are largely barren wastes 

 covered with ash drifts and the skeletons 

 of the former vegetation. 



THE NEW VEGETATION CAME FROM OLD 

 ROOTS 



One would have supposed from the 

 appearance of the country at the end of 

 the first season after the eruption that 

 practically all plants except the trees and 

 bushes had been destroyed, and that re- 

 vegetation must be due to new seedlings 

 started on the ash. Such, however, is 

 not the case. Excavation of the root sys- 

 tems of the new plants shows that they 

 are old perennials which have come 

 through the ash from the old soil. 



Where cultivation destroyed the weeds, 

 the land is still absolutely bare except for 

 an occasional weed which escaped de- 

 struction by the plow. The fallow ground, 

 on the other hand, is a mass of fireweed 

 whose bloom is conspicuous for miles 

 (see the picture above). 



