Ernst,' of the University of Zürich, to whose efforts and energy the successful results of this trip were largely due. Considering the very brief time at our disposal, the amount of material secured by Professor Ernst and the completeness with which it was worked out were really remarkable.

On the morning of April 24 our little party set sail from Tandjong Priok, the harbor of Batavia, for our brief cruise among the islands of the Straits of Sunda, for Krakatau. The little coasting steamer "Snip" (Snipe), which had been placed at our disposal for the trip, proved most comfortable, and her captain did everything possible to make our trip a pleasant one. The party included, besides Professor Ernst, Mr. C. A. Backer, of the Buitenzorg Gardens, whose intimate acquaintance with the Malaysian flora was very much appreciated, and Dr. A. A. Pulle, of the University of Utrecht, who, like myself, was working at Buitenzorg. The weather proved all that could be asked, and the voyage over the calm, dazzling blue sea among the picturesque islands was one long to be remembered. As we sailed out of the harbor we could see in the distance the great volcanoes Salak and Gedeh, which dominate Buitenzorg, and which had become quite like old friends. On the slopes of Gedeh lies the mountain station Tjibodas, where I had spent several happy weeks, and to which I was going back on my return from Krakatau. Opportunity was given us to stop at several points en route, one being Vlakke Hoek, the southernmost point of the westerly peninsula of Sumatra. All of the places where we stopped showed a most interesting strand flora, including many striking plants, some of which we encountered again on the shores of Krakatau. The shallow lagoons within the coral reefs of these islands were full of interesting things, corals, sea anemones, gorgeously

1 The New Flora of the Volcanic Island of Krakatau." By A. Ernst, Ph.D., professor of botany in the University of Zürich. Translated by A. C. Seward, F.R.S., professor of botany in the University of Cambridge. Cambridge, at the University Press, 1908.

colored fish and many interesting algæ. Professor Ernst collected a large number of striking siphoneous algæ which abound among the coral reefs. (For a list of the plants collected at these intermediate stations, see Professor Ernst's Memoir, pages 9 to 18.)

Vlakke Hoek was devastated by the great waves resulting from the eruption of Krakatau, the waves reaching a depth of fifteen meters and sweeping away practically everything except the great iron light house tower, which alone remains of buildings existing before the eruption. From Vlakke Hoek we crossed the Straits of Sunda to the southwest coast of Java (Java's first point), and en route had our first view of the peak of Krakatau rising above the clouds to the east. The bold shores of the Javanese coast presented a great contrast to the flat, monotonous shore at Vlakke Hoek in Sumatra. The difference in the topography of the land is reflected in the plants, which were strikingly different from those of Vlakke Hoek (see Ernst, pages 24 to 26). Early in the morning of April 26, we approached the Krakatau group of islands.

The view of the island of Krakatau from the north is most impressive. During the great eruption the volcanic peak Rakata was cleft down the middle, so that from peak to base its northern side presents a perpendicular cliff half a mile high, falling sheer into the sea, which at the foot of the cliff is now more than three hundred meters deep. The exposed face of the cliff forms a perfect median section of the cone, and the arrangement of the rocks of which it is built up offers a most extraordinary picture. Professor Ernst took some admirable photographs, which are reproduced in Plate III of his Memoir.

At six o'clock we dropped anchor and soon after were taken ashore in one of the ship's boats. The landing was made on the east side of the island where the outer part of the beach forms a broad zone of mingled pumice, coral and all sorts of débris; fragments of driftwood, seaweed

453 and a conglomeration of seeds and fruits washed up by the tide. Many of the fruits washed upon the shore were those of characteristic strand plants like cocoanuts, screw pines, Nipa palms and others. Most of these show various devices for facilitating their transport by water, and some of them had germinated and were trying to get a foothold in the loose mass of pumice and coral sand. Above this outer drift zone there is a characteristic sandy belt where various typical strand plants have established themselves. The long prostrate stems of Ipomoea pes-capra, that most ubiquitous of tropical strand plants, sprawled over the sand, and with these were masses of the curious grass, Spinifex, and a yellow flowered leguminous plant Vigna lutea, a euphorbia with thick, waxy leaves, and various other species common to the outer littoral zone of the Indo-malaysian region. While fruits of the Nipa palm were found, the plant has not yet got a foothold in Krakatau, and there is as yet no mangrove formation established.

Back of the beach a thrifty belt of forest is conspicuous and could be plainly seen long before we reached the island. Some of the trees in this forest are at least fifty feet high, the tallest being specimens of the curious Casuarina equisetifolia Forst., a genus mainly confined to the Australasian region, but with a few species widely distributed throughout the Malayan Archipelago. Associated with these were found specimens of screw pines (Pandanus sp.), and the striking Terminalia Catappa L., whose whorled branches and great shining leaves make it one of the most notable of tropical trees. Perhaps the most beautiful of all the trees of this strand forest is Barringtonia speciosa Forst., a tree with large, glossy, dark green leaves and great white flowers with a crown of stamens looking like an enormous myrtle flower. The curious four-sided angular fruits of this tree are very common along the beach. Of the few climbing plants the most conspicuous was Vitis trifolia L.

After spending some time exploring the beach and

strand forest, we pushed inland toward the south, not without much exertion and perspiration. The unclouded rays of an equatorial sun beat down pitilessly upon us, and when, after struggling over blocks of pumice and through thickets of tall grasses and bushes, we finally reached a small grove of cocoanut palms, full of fruit, we threw ourselves down on the ground under their grateful shade and took a well-earned rest. No time was lost in sending one of the natives up into a tree for green nuts, which were thrown down and quickly opened, and never did anything taste better than the cool, sparkling cocoanut water after our exhausting march through the fierce heat of the jungle.

From the ship we had seen that the ravines on the flank of the Rakata were filled with a dense growth of trees, forming the beginning of a new forest, but it was quite impossible to guess what the trees were. We tried to cross the open tract lying between the belt of forest on the shore and the cone in the center of the island, but we had to give up the attempt after penetrating some distance inland, following the dry bed of a stream for part of the way. The land was terribly rough and covered in many places with a dense jungle of grasses ten or fifteen feet high, through which he had to hew a path with the wicked-looking cutlasses which every Malay carries when traveling. The way lay over steep ridges, which grew worse and worse as we approached the cone, and finally we realized that with the short time at our disposal, and the limited means of cutting our way through the jungle and scrub, we should have to give up the attempt, which we did very reluctantly, and retraced our steps to the shore, where we embarked for the ship.

The monotony of the journey over the grass steppes in the interior of the island was broken by encounters with countless ants which built their nests everywhere, in the crevices of the rocks, among the roots of the grasses and shrubs, and even hanging from the branches of the shrubs and trees; and as we scrambled up the steep slopes

of the frequent small ravines, down would come showers of ants, swarming all over us but not doing any serious damage. Few showy flowers were seen, the most striking being several terrestrial orchids, one of which Arundina speciosa Bl. was quite common and decidedly handsome.

After boarding the ship, we sat sail for the north side of the island, where a landing was made at the base of the rock wall formed by the fractured face of the riven cone of Rakata. As we approached the face of the cliff, we were startled to see what looked like puffs of smoke rising from various fissures in the cliff. Remembering the history of the mountain, and also having just received the news of the eruption of Vesuvius and the terrible earthquake at home, the thought occurred that perhaps Krakatau was getting ready for another outburst, which to say the least, was not reassuring. But we finally discovered that the "smoke" was merely clouds of dust caused by the falling of débris from the face of the cliff.

Our landing was made in a broad bay where there is a narrow beach, but the development of the strand flora is much less advanced than on the south side of the island. Ferns were noticeably abundant, as they were on the other parts of the island when it was first visited after the eruption. Nephrolepis exaltata Schott was especially frequent, and in the crevices in the rocks we found numerous prothallia and young plants of a species of Gymnogramme and of several other ferns. Some of the ferns and other plants which were growing upon the ground here are usually epiphytes. Of these Polypodium quercifolium L. was the most conspicuous.

After exploring the interior and strip of land at the base of the cone, we returned to the ship. Before the sun went down we set sail for Java and soon the peak of Krakatau was left behind us. The next morning found us safely back in Tandjong Priok.