VI. THE EXPEDITION OF PENZIG, TREUB, RAC1BORSKI, 



BOERLAGE AND CLAUTRIAU TO KRAKATAO, 



LANG EILAND AND VERLATEN EILAND 



IN MARCH 1897. 



[Ann. lard. Bot. Buitenzorg \\'\\\ (1902), p. 92 seq.J 



On March 17th 1897, half a year after Boerlage's and 

 Burck's trip to Lang Eiiand the 3 islands of the Krakatao-group ') 

 were visited by Penzig, Treub, Raciborski, Boerlage and 

 Clautriau. They were assisted by Pa I d a n, a most excellent native 

 collector, now already dead for many years, who by his phenomenal 

 knowledge of the flora of the surroundings of Buitenzorg has rendered 

 great services to the many foreign botanists who visited the Buiten- 

 zorg Botanical Institute. 



Five years after his visit to Krakatao Penzig gave a survey 

 of the results obtained, using thereby notes and photos avowedly 

 originating from Boerlage and Clautriau who had already died 

 by that time. From this survey it appears that the investigation 

 carried out by Penzig and his companions suffered from the same 

 defects as that of Treub. They too took a priori for granted that 

 the former vegetation of Krakatao must have been entirely destroyed -) 

 by the eruption of 1883; they too investigated only a very small 

 and not the most important - part of the island; the time they could 

 give to their exploration half a day only was altogether insufficient 

 for a close investigation of the vast and much accidented locality; 

 they :! ) too lacked a sufficient knowledge of the Indian flora and 

 its behaviour towards the factors of habitat and climate; they too 



') This excursion to Krakatao was preceded by a trip to the very small island 

 Pulu Merak, lying off the north-east point of |ava. I his fact is mentioned here only 

 because Penzig wrongly took his companions and himself for the first botanists 

 who ever visited this island. But in 1862 already M i cj u e I (Flora Ind. Batav. Sumatra, 

 passim) recorded several plants found by ley smarm on Pulu Merak. 



2 ) Cf. Ann. |ard. Bot. XVIII (1902), p. 103: Verlaten Eiiand, ,,nur wenige Kilometer 

 ,,vom Krakatau entfernt, hat zur Zeit der denkwiirdigen Eruption c/as Schiksal des letzteren 

 ,,getheilt 4 ): die Gluth verdorrte und verbrannte jegliche Vegetation; Lava-, Birnsstein- 

 ,,und Aschenmassen begruben unter meterhohen Schichten iede Spur thierischen und 

 ,,pflanzlichen Lebens". 



3 ) Penzig stayed only 4 months (Nov. 23rd 1896 till April 1st 1897) in lava and 

 devoted this time mainly to mycological studies. But even if he had exclusively and 

 assiduously studied Ferns and Phanerogams he could not possibly have obtained the 

 knowledge necessary for a thorough phyto-geographic investigation for which a prep- 

 aratory study of many years is required. 



'*) Italics by me. 



