262 



s 



along forest-paths, on woodborders, in light woods. The 

 reproduction is effected by the fruits, which are provided 

 with a well-developed pappus. 



Collected at an altitude of 600 m. 



In my discussion of 14 herebefore I mentioned already that 

 Mr. Docters van Leeuwen has singled out ten plants from 

 the list of ,,forest-plants" above (No. 9, 12, 14, 25, 31, 47, 50, 58, 60 

 and 67) as being ,,no real forest-plants". Consequently there remain 

 58 species which he considers to be ,,real forest-plants". One is at 

 some pains to ascertain what Mr. Docters van Leeuwen may 

 have understood by this term. He can hardly mean plants which 

 sometimes may be found in any kind of forest, for if so, there 

 would be but comparatively few species on Krakatao that were no 

 forest-plants- We have therefore to suppose that his intention was 

 to restrict this term to plants which, as a rule, are found in forests 

 and are comparatively rare out of them. There are in Java several 

 kinds of forests, each with their characteristic plants, but the word 

 forest-plant cannot have been taken here in so wide a sense that 

 it comprises all these plants. Mr. Docters van Leeuwen cannot 

 have meant plants of the coastal forests, for none of the littoral 

 plants found on Krakatao, not even Casuarina equisetifolia L., which 

 formed a small forest near the sea, are included in the list of 

 forest-plants. Teak-forests are on Krakatao out of the question and so 

 are true savanna-forests, though young secondary forests, gradually 

 replacing grassy wilds, may sometimes resemble them. Neither can 

 young secondary rain-forest be meant, for in such forests No. 14, 

 Drymog/ossum heterophy/liim C. Chr,; No- 25, Lygodium scandens 

 5u-.; No. 50, Ficus septica Burm.; No. 58, Leea aequata L. and 

 No. 60, Me/astoma rnalabathricum L., considered by him to be no 

 real forest-plants, are plants of common occurrence. Consequently 

 Mr. Docters van Leeuwen can by ,,real forest-plants" only 

 mean plants of primeval and rather old secondary rain-forests. At 

 present Krakatao does not bear any very old forests, the former 

 woods having been devastated by the eruption of 1883 (though locally 

 plants, rhizomes, seeds or spores quite well may have survived). But 

 in many ravines of the island secondary forests have grown up since 

 the eruption, in the higher parts of the cone (barring those quite near 

 the top) already rather advanced in age, dark and humid; the lower 

 ones gradually younger, thinner, consequently sunnier and drier. Con- 



