468 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



pensis and the Ilex. The trees were in very great number, but there was a scarcity 

 of young trees, and most of the old ones had been tapped for resin. On the second 

 day we passed through the cedar forest, and the same sort of country as before, the 

 Pinus Laricio beginning at an altitude of 4000 feet. We got as far as the monastery 

 of Kykou that day, and the next day I continued along the watershed to the camp 

 at Troodos. Our road as far as Kykou was a mere track on the side of the hill, in 

 some parts rather dangerous, and we had to lead our ponies on foot, in many parts 

 very steep. The difficulty on the road is the want of water at that elevation. We 

 halted the first night at a beautiful spring, but we had to carry with us food for man 

 and beast for the whole party, muleteers, etc. The scenery was wild and romantic. 

 This spot is the centre of the moufflon ground ; three of them were at the spring when 

 we approached it. It gave me a clearer idea of the forests of Cyprus than I ever had 

 before." 



Madon, who wrote for the Government in 1881 a report' on the forests of 

 Cyprus, states that none of the trees were then apparently over eighty years old ; but 

 that all were in a vigorous state of vegetation, with numerous young trees of every 

 age covering the soil. In addition to the main forest, three outlying clumps were 

 seen by Madon, one on the other side of the Ogostina valley, a group of forty-four 

 very young trees at the Kykou monastery, and a third group much lower down. He 

 considered that the cedars formerly covered the whole of the mountain heights from 

 Machera to Livrami, being limited below by the zone of the olive tree. The timber 

 can be recognised in the houses at Campo and in the carvings of the Kykou monas- 

 tery, showing that the tree was formerly felled for building purposes. Madon noticed 

 what has been confirmed by other observers, that the foliage varied in tint, most of 

 the trees being glaucous. 



Hartmann, who has recently visited Cyprus, reports ^ that the trees are remark- 

 able for their broad, umbrella-like crowns, and average about 40 feet in height, 6 feet 

 in girth, and 100 years in age. (A. H.) 



I am informed by Mr. C. D. Cobham, Acting Chief-Secretary to Government, 

 in a recent letter, that the Cyprian cedars now occupy an area of about 500 acres in 

 the centre of the Papho Forest, of which the summit, Tripylos, is 4640 feet above the 

 sea. The cedars are mixed with pines and Ilex. There are also a few young trees 

 at Kykou Monastery, a few in the vineyards at Chakistra, and one good specimen 

 tree at Pedoullas. This last was purchased by the Government to preserve it from 

 being cut for building material. There are a number of seedlings in the cedar 

 forest, but these do not seem to have been affected by the exclusion of goats, 

 as animals avoid the cedar when they, can find other food. The largest tree in 

 the forest is in Argakis Irkas Teratsa, near the Kykou goatfold. It stands about 

 60 feet high, and measures 1 1 feet 6 inches in girth at five feet from the ground. A 

 photograph of this tree is so precisely like a Lebanon cedar standing on my own 

 lawn, which I see as I write, that I need not reproduce it. I may add that some 

 cones sent from Cyprus in February 1905 were smaller than the cones from Syria 



' Parly. Paper: End. 2 in Cyprus, No. 366, 0/' 188 1, p. 28. 

 * Mitt. Deut. Dendr. Gts. 1905, p. 181. 



