-14- Recovery of the plants was rapid. on the third day. length, On the were observed on Heavy rains occurred eighth day green buds, the stems of schmidia (Fig. 5a) plants. 1-3 mm in Scaevola and Messer- On the thirty-fifth day the shoot leaves were 7 to 15 cm long, covering much of the old stems (Fig. 5b) and giving the plants a green and healthy appearance. By this time many of the other plants had formed new leaves and three species (Portulaca, Triumfetta, produced new flowers and fruits. scorched appearance; and Messerschmidia) had The island now had lost its from the air it looked green rather than brown as it had one month earlier. In August, three months after the detonation, were growing well (Fig. 6) and some species, the plants such as Boerhaavia had produced new flowers. The leaves of most of the species had grown to maximum size, and the branches had grown almost to the pre-Nectar a@imensions. This was not the case with the Guettarda and Lepturus plants, which recovered more slowly than the other species. The new growth on the Guettarda plant (No. 1216) consisted of ten small leaves which originated from a new shoot 18 cm tall at the base of the old plant; plant (No. the Lepturus 1410) was a mat of dead tops with some new growth forming at the periphery.