69 



carried downwards by rain-water or by wind, till they reached the 

 locality examined by T r e u b. Hence for these species too one is 

 not bound to admit direct transport by wind over a large distance. 

 But here also nothing is proven. 



Of No. 13 and 19 of T r e u b's list, Stenoch/aena palustris Bedd. 

 and Acrostichum aureum L. ferns of humid or swampy localities, of 

 water-sides or a soil with a high water table, the spores possess floating 

 power, hence may be transported by water. The spores of these 2 ferns 

 may quite well have been carried to Krakatao by sea-currents and 

 it is not proven that by floating on the sea during one day they lose 

 their germinative power. Neither is transport by animals, f. i. birds, 

 quite impossible; S c h i m p e r already pointed out the possibility 

 of this means of conveyance ') 



I am fully aware not to have adduced conclusive proofs for the 

 correctness of these views. But transport of spores by wind from 

 outside of the island is just as little proven and the supposition that 

 part of the new fern-vegetation has arisen from, at least might have 

 arisen from rests of the old one is, I think, supported by probability. 

 T r e u b having taken a priori the most important and most dubious point 

 for granted, has neglected to assiduously seek for rests of the old 

 vegetation, that might have remained in life. At present, almost half a 

 century after the eruption, it is impossible to decide whether the 

 original vegetation was in 1883 entirely destroyed or only for a part. 

 Consequently it is uncertain whether the new flora necessarily was 

 introduced. Hence the Krakatao-problem cannot be distinctly posed and 

 therefore not be solved either now or in the future, even when the 

 most extensive and irreproachable investigations would be carried out. 



4. The new flora of Krakatao consisted almost exclusively of ferns. 

 Phanerogams occurred only here and there in scattered specimens on 

 the beach and on the mountain. 



Passing over the fact that the first part of this assertion by its 

 defective wording is contradictory to that given under point 7 (p. 75), 

 I emphasize that this statement may be applied only to the compar- 

 atively small and, locally at least, very unfertile part of Krakatao 

 which was examined by T r e u b. Of the vegetation of the higher 

 parts of the mountain in 1886 n'e know nothing more than that Treub 

 already saw rather large plants growing there. There is not a single 



l ) Sc him per, Indo-Malayische Strandflora (1881), p. 157, under the name of 

 Chrysodium aureum Mett. 



