132 Philippine Journal of Science i#i7 
hat), Tahernaemontana subglobosa (pandacaqui), and Ficus 
hauili (hauili). The shrub Tabernaemontana pandacaqui (pan- 
dacaqui) and the coarse herb Blumea balsamifera (sambong) 
were also very common. The above plants were probably pro- 
minent in the former vegetation on Volcano Island. 
Near the small villages perennial cultivated plants such as 
bananas, bamboo, and fruit trees must have been numerous. 
Some of the land was probably also intensively cultivated with 
shorter-lived crops. 
The above discussion indicates that parang probably existed 
on all parts of the island except in the following places: The 
neighborhood of the villages, where cultivation was fairly in- 
tensive; on the steep slopes of the main volcano and Mount Ta- 
baro; and in the stream beds. In some places the growth may 
have been dense enough to justify its being called a second- 
growth forest. 
DESTRUTION OF VEGETATION 
Extensive accounts of the eruption of 1911 have been given 
by Pratt,® Saderra Mas6,^® Worcester,^^ and Martin.^* These 
writers agree in saying that the vegetation was completely de- 
stroyed. Martin writes: 
Taal Island was devastated, not a blade of grass escaping: trees 16 
centimeters in diameter were broken, leaving stumps 0.3 to 0.5 of a meter 
high; the ends of these stumps were shredded like whisk brooms by the 
fall of sand and small stones driven by the force of the eruption. 
The following description by Maso includes some of the main- 
land on the western shore of Lake Bombon, or Taal: 
Within the central area which contained 13 barrios and hamlets con- 
structed of bamboo and nipa, the effects are described better by the world 
‘annihilation’ than ‘destruction’ — ^human beings, animals, trees, houses, every- 
thing was wiped out and covered with a layer of mud out of which only here 
and there protrudes the trunk of one of the mightier trees! 
During the eruption there was no flow of lava and the destruc- 
tion was not caused by fire. Pratt says: 
The chief agent of destruction and the main cause of death resulting 
from the eruption was the explosive expansion of the escaping steam, which 
‘ Pratt, W. E., The eruption of Taal Volcano, January 30, 1911, Philip, 
Joum. Sci. A 6 (1911) 63-86. 
“ Saderra Maso, M., The Eruption of Taal Volcano, January 30, 1911. 
Weather Bureau, Manila (1911) 1-45. 
“Worcester, D. C., National Geographic Magazine 23 (1912) 313-367. 
“ Martin, C., Observations of the recent eruption of Taal Volcano, Philip. 
Joum. Sci. A 6 (1911) 87-91. 
