TUE NATUEAL HISTOET OE CYPRUS. 387 



number of plants which were described in Paris by Spach. Kotschy 

 again paid a hurried visit to the island in the early spring of 1859, and 

 spent some time on Troodos, its highest mountain ; making consi- 

 derable collections. 



Our travellers starting from Vienna reached Trieste on the 10th 

 March, 1862. Embarking at that port on the 15th, they anchored 

 on the 25th March at Larnaka on the south-east coast of Cyprus. 

 On their arrival they found that spring had already made some pro- 

 gress. The work before us does not give us a continued diary oi 

 their journey, though a few of the more important details are briefly 

 noticed. It is rather a copious statement of results than a personal 

 narrative. "We cannot, therefore, by extracts give anything like an 

 accurate idea of it, but it is possible and may be interesting to our 

 readers to select from it a few of the principal facts, and thus get 

 some idea of the physical conformation, climate, and vegetation of 

 the island. 



The plan of our travellers led them to travel together, instead of 

 each taking a separate district. They divided the field of work 

 between them, each taking his own favourite branches of natural 

 science. To Kotschy's share fell the flowering plants, it being his 

 task not only to collect but to make copious notes of their range and 

 distribution. linger undertook Cryptogamic Botany, Greology and 

 Meteorology. The animal kingdom was also divided, the land and 

 fresh- water mollnsks being allotted to Dr. linger, while all the other 

 branches were given to Dr. Kotschy. The travellers made Larnaka 

 their head-quarters or depot, as it were, making repeated short 

 excui'sions varying from a few days to a fortnight or more, at the end 

 of which they returned with their booty, which they deposited there, 

 to start afresh unencumbered by collections. Dr. Kotschy spoke 

 Turkish perfectly, and modern Greek sufliciently well to enable them 

 to dispense with an interpreter. They travelled always on horseback, 

 not only because travelling on foot is unusual, and would therefore 

 have been remarked upon, but because it is often im])racticable from 

 the wretched state of the roads. In Cyprus, we may note for the 

 benefit of future travellers, that it is rarely necessary, as is so often 

 the case in Greece, to carry provisions for weeks together. Here 

 each town aff'ords biscuits or bread, rice, pulse, butter, &c., and there 

 are few villages or monasteries in which eggs, fowls, mutton, and 

 pork cannot be obtained. An occasional hare and francolin served to 

 vary the diet of the travellers, and wine of fair quality was readily 



2 n 2 "" 



