316 THE entomologist's record. 



I propose to begin my account of the season's work by describing 

 the areas of the Constantinople district which I actuallj^ worked. 

 By the Constantinople district I mean the two necks of land, separated 

 by the Bosphorus, and bounded by the Black Sea on the north and on 

 the south by the Sea of Marmora, extending from the Tchataldja lines 

 in the west to the town of Ismid on the east. Of this area much is 

 still wooded, though large portions have been stripped of trees and are 

 either bare or covered with oak and thorn scrub. The Belgrade Forest 

 behind Therapia on the European side of the Upper Bosphorus is the 

 largest Avood in the near neighbourhood of Constantinople. On the- 

 Asiatic side there is one considerable forest, the Alem Dagh wood, 

 which covers some 40 sqixare miles all told, and several minor preserves 

 and covers, but the south side of the Asiatic peninsula is terribly bare 

 of wood, having been cleared during the last 50 years. The commonest 

 trees are oak {Qitercufi robur and Q. cerris), ilex, chestnut, lime, 

 and beech in the order given ; wild cherry trees are not infrequent, 

 plane, willow and poplar, abundant near water in the neighbour- 

 hood of villages, cypress in gardens and cemeteries, elm less 

 frequently, and pine only on the Prince's islands, and on a few hilltops, 

 and apparently planted in some coverts behind Beikos on the Asiatic 

 shore of the Bosphorus. Myrtle, a small-leaved bay, arbutus, tree 

 heather, blackberry, broom and buckthorn, blackthorn and hawthorn,, 

 form the undergrowth, which is often distressingly thick in the woods 

 and bushy valleys, with here and there VaUurns thorn, and any 

 quantity of Ihibiis and wild rose. As a general rule the vegetation has 

 a fairly northern air. There are, however, some warm valleys, e.;/., 

 the Djendere valley, branching oft from the Valley of the Sweet waters 

 of Europe (Kiat-hane), which have a decidedly Mediterranean aspect, 

 where heather, broom and cistus, with abundance of aromatic plants, 

 above all thyme and lavender, flourish. The soil is clay or sandstone^ 

 with a few limestone outcrops in the neighbourhood of the capital. 

 I have seen what appeared to be a cretaceous rock on the way to Ismid. 

 There are no marshes near the Bosphorus, except the salfcmarsh at the 

 mouth of the Tchekmedje lakes, but there is a great marsh at Ismid 

 where I hope to take (JhriifioplianuH rutilus another year. As a rule 

 the hillsides, when stripped, are rather unproductive, mere windy 

 downs, much grazed by sheep and cattle. The hills behind Erenkeui 

 on the Asiatic side of the Marmora are, when stripped of trees, very 

 barren and covered only with a dismal-looking brownish -green vegeta- 

 tion, composed partly of a thorny plant, which replaces heather in 

 Syria, and which is commonly called " geven." In most of the valleys 

 there are biooks, temporary or perennial, which, with the draught from 

 the Black Sea, keep vegetation fresh till late in the year. As far as 

 I can learn the average temperature during the summer is higher on 

 the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus than on the European, but decidedly 

 lower than that of Naples, which is in almost the exact latitude of 

 Constantinople, but once one " turns the corner" and passes Scutari 

 going east along the coast, the average maxima and minima increase. 

 In other words, the further you go from the Bosphorus draught the 

 more " continental " the climate becomes. 



To turn to my collecting this year, two points struck me rather 

 forcibly, firstly, the very western appearance of many of the butterflies 

 I took ; secondly, the apparent rarity of certain species which one 



