123 



he would have followed the old recipe and have taken the wind 

 for the agent of dispersal. 



I have already repeatedly argued that it is by no means proven 

 that the original vegetation of Krakatao was entirely destroyed by the 

 eruption but that many species may have survived the catastrophe. 

 Of the 16 species recorded above, No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 JO, II. 

 12, 13 and 16 may quite well have grown long before the eruption 

 on the slopes of Zwarte Hoek. No. 7, 14 and 15 may be remnants 

 of the former forest. We know, however, nothing with certainty, 

 neither that species have been spared, nor that they have been 

 introduced. The Krakatao-problem has no base, there is no fixed 

 point of depart, one can only guess and always guess, nothing has 

 been properly investigated, nothing has been proven, nor could be 

 proven by the defective methods of investigation which were followed. 



It is, of course, quite possible that seeds or fruits of plants 

 now living in the interior were introduced after the eruption. But 

 even if such an introduction might have taken place, the fact that 

 14 of the plants named above possess light or winged or pappose 

 seeds or fruits is by no means proof that these seeds or fruits were 

 carried over by the wind. On p. I I I have already argued that such 

 seeds and fruits often get into rivers which can spread them further. 

 Hence for these species also transport by sea-currents may not be 

 considered impossible, as long as it has not been proven that the 

 short time 'they have to remain in the sea-water the transport by 

 sea-currents from Java to Krakatao can be made within a single 

 day suffices to destroy the germinative power. Then remains the pos- 

 sibility of transport by pumice, driftwood, animals and man. Especially 

 the fruits of Compositae and Gramineae often adhere to garments 

 or goods, hence may be easily spread by man. 



As regards the seeds which have already reached Krakatao or 

 which are produced there, the wind certainly takes and has taken 

 an active part in their distribution over the island, especially before 

 the vegetation was very dense, though certainly distribution by rain- 

 water flowing down also took place on a large scale, as will be admit- 

 ted by everyone who has witnessed tropical showers in the mountains. 

 Nothing is known of the fauna of Krakatao in the first ten years after 

 the catastrophe. But we may safely assume that the superterranean fauna 

 was entirely, or almost so, driven away or destroyed by the erupt- 

 ion and it may be that the number of flower-pollinating insects and 

 seed-dispersing animals in the first years after the eruption was 



