215 



subsequent publication ') Mr. Docters van Leeuwen says that 

 Cyrtandra su/cata on Krakatao ,,comp/ete/y and densely covers a/1 slopes 

 ,,between 300 and 800 m." . But it can hardly be believed that during his 

 few and short visits to Krakatao he has found time to visit all or 

 nearly all the slopes, many parts of which are inaccessible by the 

 presence of innumerable deep and vertical-sided ravines, intercrossing 

 in all directions. Neither is it probable that ridges, ravine-sides and 

 ravine-bottoms alike were completely and densely covered with one 

 and the same species. 



Of the host of epiphytes which had settled on the Cyrtandra 

 at a height of + 600 m. not a single species is mentioned. But in the 

 list of forest-plants added as Appendix III to his paper, Mr. Docters 

 van Leeuwen records 9 epiphytes (Liparis viridiflora Lind/., 

 Obcroniu monstruosa Lind/., Oberonia spec., Thrixspermum spec., 

 Trichomanes liumile Forst. -), Antrop/iyum spec., Dava/lia spec., 

 Hymeno/epis spicata Presl and Po/ypodium heracleum Knze) for a 

 height of 600 m. or more. The bryologist Max F I e i s c h e r ;J ) ment- 

 ions the moss F/oribundaria f/oribunda Fleisch., as having been found 

 on trees between 200 and 700 m. on the day of this excursion. For 

 a tropical rain-forest at that altitude a total of 10 species of epiphytes 

 is but a very small number but many more may have been present. 

 And it should not be forgotten that many epiphytes are slow in 

 coming to a secondary forest- 



Of the typical mountain-trees occurring at an altitude of 600 m. 

 only one, Ficus ribes Reinw., is mentioned and this is, as I already 

 observed herebefore, hardly a typical mountain tree, because it is also 

 found in the lower regions. Whether the huge specimen of Ficus 

 retusa L. found at an altitude of 700 m. (as appears from Appendix 

 III to the Dutch text) was a remnant of the former vegetation or 

 had grown up after the eruption, cannot be ascertained any more. 



On the drier ridges heliophilous plants occurred, part of them 

 common kremnophytes (Nep/irolepis exaltata Schott, Dryopteris unita 

 O.K.),ior the rest two very common grasses. The frequent occurrence of 

 Saccharum spontaneum L. on the ridges, the multitude of epiphytical 



') W. Docters van Leeuwen, The Vegetation of the Island of Sebesy, 

 situated in the Sunda-Strait near the Islands of the Krakatau group; in the year 1921, 

 in Ann. |ard. Bot. Buitenzorg XXXII (1923), p. 139. 



-) Often this is no epiphyte but an inhabitant of wet rocks and steep walls. Sec 

 the list of forest-plants hereafter, sub No. 1. 



*) Beitrag zur Lnubmoosflora der Vulkaninsel Krakatau in Ann. |ard. Bot. Buitenzorg 

 XXXIII (1923), p. 107. The same paper mentions Aerobryopsis longissima Fleisch. 

 (inclusive of var. densifolia Fleisch.} as having been found on forest trees at altitudes 

 of 500-700 m. on |an. 1st 1922 and. Febr. 5th 1922, 



