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People were interested in this, and Dr. A. F. W. Schimper then visited another volcano which had been pouring out huge streams of lava in 1843. He found that there were still plenty of ferns, but also numbers of shrubs and other plants. Yet even then there were no trees, and there was no continuous mantle of green plants such as we are accustomed to in this country. He also found many plants growing on the lava which are generally found on the branches of trees, that is, which can do without a thick layer of soil. He also found quantities of a pitcher plant, Nepenthes (which lives mainly on insects caught in its pitchers).