Melchior Treub sent Backer on two expeditions to the volcano Krakatao , in 1906 and in 1908 . In 1929 Backer published his contentious book '' The problem of Krakatao , as seen by a botanist '' , in which he maintained that not all plant life had been destroyed by the gigantic eruption of the volcano , but that rootstocks and diaspores might have been buried to sprout again . Indeed , this possibility can not be ruled out completely because of the failure of the Government to undertake any research immediately after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa . Only as late as June 1886 the first biologist , Melchior Treub , came to take stock , but grasses had already been observed on the slopes in 1884 by the Dutch geologist Rogier Verbeek ( 1845 – 1926 )
1883 eruption of Krakatoa
1883 eruption of Krakatoa
Cornelis Andries Backer