ECOLOGY OF THE jSTAPLES FLORA. 157 



SOME ECOLOGICAL OBSERVATIOXS OX THE 

 NAPLES FLORA. 



By Joseph Y. Bergen. 



Author of Principles of Botany, etc. 



The writer was for about four years resideut ou the south 

 Italian coast in and near ISTaples. During this time he was able 

 to make studies of the vegetation of the region from several 

 points of view and wrote some brief papers based on these 

 studies.* The following notes are in part abridged from those 

 papers and in part consist of new matter. 



As the winter of the coastwise part of the Province of 

 Xaj)les is a very mild one, with only a few freezing nights, vege- 

 tation of some sort flourishes durins" everv month of the year. 

 Indeed, the hillsides, where they are not wooded, are greener in 

 January than during the droughts of July and AugTist. Tliere 

 are tw^o principal seasons for the floAvering of seed plants. The 

 greater one is April and early May, the lesser, October and No- 

 vember. 



The curious fact was noted that some annuals whicli pro- 

 duce a summer-flowering and a winter-flowering crop are 

 dwarfed in winter by the comparatively low^ temi^erature. Thus 

 on January 11, specimens of Eiigeron canadense were found 

 flowering at a height of IS-iO cm. and apparently with their 

 growth completed. Other specimens which had developed be- 

 tween October and December had reached a heieht of 70-100 cm. 



January 11th full grown plants of Datura Stramonium 

 were found to measure only 15-20 cm., while those in bloom 

 August 1st reached a maximum height of 70 cm., and were much 

 stouter than the specimens which matured in January. 



To one acquainted only with the flora of the Middle or East- 

 ern United States, the plants of the Neapolitan region ofi'er much 

 that is novel. Of course new genera abound and the familiar 

 genera are represented by more or fewer species. The lily fam- 

 ily is much in evidence, especially in the genus Allium, of whicli 



•"Botanical Gazette. 1903-1905. 



