The New Volcanic Island, Krakatoa

Abstract

To a botanist or zoologist the birth of a new island from beneath the sea is an event of considerable interest. A number of questions occur to him and he will almost inevitably speculate as to the first forms of life to colonise it, and the date of their appearance. In Dr. W. Docters van Leeuwen's interesting letter, published in NATURE of October 28, a list of the first seedlings to colonise Anak Krakatoa IV is given. These were collected in May 1932, but his reference to an observation four months earlier indicates that seedlings were present at least as early as seventeen months after the island first began to appear above sea-level.