228 



If by genuine Fungi Mr. Docters van Leeuwen means 

 Eumycetes and what else can he mean? he did not find 33 1 ) but 

 32 species on the main island (38 on the 3 islands together), as 

 recorded by himself in Appendix I. Including previous finds this 

 number rises to 34 (40). 



The increase of the number of epiphytes mostly mosses, ferns and 

 orchids in a young forest growing older is in a wet tropical climate 

 a quite common phenomenon. There is nothing remarkable about the 

 fact that this also happened on Krakatao unless it can be proven 

 that these epiphytes were introduced after the eruption and light is 

 spread upon the manner how this happened. Many of the epiphytes 

 and fungi found for the first time in 1919 may already have been pre- 

 sent in other parts of the island in 1908, even long before that year. 

 On this point also nothing is known with certainty. All statements 

 about a great change in the conditions of life after 1908 on Krakatao, 

 taken as a whole, are mere guesses, unsupported by facts. 



15. I hie Krakatao-flora can he divided into the following spheres. First the usual 

 littoral zone which already began to form in 1886 and was well represented 

 in 1897. Next the BamVjgrfon/a-formation which is now wider, now narrower, 

 sometimes absent. I hen the Casuarina ec/u/sef/Tb/ia-forest with its peculiar 

 vegetation of smaller trees, shrubs and creepers, to which Backer applied the 

 name of mixed forest. After this we get to the grassy wilds of the level interior 

 which occasionally also rises to the ridges. Here are found groves chiefly cons- 

 isting of various species of iicus, of Pipturus incanus Wedtl,, Macaranga 

 tanarius M. A. and other trees and shrubs. I hese clusters of trees become 

 more and more numerous, would seem to coalesce and with time will occupy 

 the greater part of the steppe. At present the photo still shows them isolated. 

 Here and there this grassy plain advances as far as the littoral zone. Phis is 

 succeeded by the young virgin forest of the ravines, stretching as far as the 

 top. In some parts there are still dry ridges set with ferns and Saccharum 

 spontaneum and at the summit one comes upon the last remains of the 

 fern-zone, mingled with Sai-charum and stunted trees from the ravine-flora. 

 This covers and will probably continue to clothe for some time to come, the 

 summit proper as well as the very highest ridges. Continued research will be 

 needed to define all this more completely. I he most remarkable thing is that 

 especially in the higher ravines the forest is formed by practically one plant, 

 Cyrtamlra sulcata HI., which in Java and Sumatra is a small forest-plant 

 under tall trees. But this plant also will probably after a lapse of time have 

 to be content with a more modest place. 



To this there is but little to add. By the usual littoral zone Mr. 

 Docters van Leeuwen apparently means only the Pes caprae- 

 formation, forgetting that the Barringtonia-iormation and Casuarina 

 equisetifoiia belong quite as well to the beach in the oecological 

 sense of the word. The name of mixed forest was never applied by 

 me to the Casuarina-torest with its undergrowth. For this subject 



') The same number is given in the Dutch text. 



