HOW NEW PLANTS COME IN. 
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HOW NEW PLANTS COME IN. 
By Dr. W. Whitman Bailey. 
There is always great interest attached to the peopling of a 
new region or the re-habitation of an old. By peopling is not 
meant here colonization by men or even by animals. By a figure 
of speech the term is extended to the establishment of plants 
in a given locality. 
Thus, for example, when the island of Krakatoa was de¬ 
stroyed in 1883 by the most stupendous seismic catastrophe in 
historic time, vegetation was swept away by the flow of lava and 
the rain of red hot ashes and sulphurous dust. What escaped 
these destructive agencies met death from the tidal wave, a flood 
which extinguished whole cities and districts of adjacent lands. 
Demolition was complete. 
It required but a few years, however, to reclothe the island with 
a fresh growth of plants. It was carefully noted by botanists 
and others in government employ, what species first arrived, what 
succumbed to unfavorable conditions upon arrival, and what suc¬ 
ceeded in maintaining a foothold and increasing. 
It follows that all plants are not equally successful as colon¬ 
izers, nor is it always evident why certain ones fail while others 
succeed. The investigation of such problems is of perennial 
interest. It involves a careful examination of the gross and 
minute anatomy and adaptive provisions of each species. The 
study is of direct economic importance as one learns what can 
best grow in a given place, or what it is folly to attempt. 
Without journeying to the antipodes one can see similar action 
going on near home. The earthquakes of “ improvement,” the 
municipal volcano, or the tidal wave of speculation, may involve 
a piece of land to the utter demolition of its indigenous flora. 
For a time a desert is left behind, the ultimate abiding place of 
tin-cans, rusty stove-pipes, demolished baskets, broken bottles, 
ashes and crockery. 
Nature, though banished for a time, does not despair. She 
