3 2 MYRIAPODA 



A cold climate, however, is not fatal to some fairly large 

 species of Centipedes. A striking instance of this came under 

 my own observation some years ago. In 1886 I was travelling 

 in the island of Cyprus the " Enchanted Island," as Mr. Mallock 

 calls it in his book written about the same time with the 

 intention of observing its natural history. This island consists 

 of a broad flat country crossed by two mountain ranges of con- 

 siderable height, thus offering the contrast of a hot climate in 

 the plains and a cold climate in the mountains. On the plain 

 country I found among the Myriapoda that the most common 

 species were a large Scolopendra and a large Lithohius. The 

 Scolopendra was fairly common, living for the most part under 

 large stones, and it was a pleasant task to search for them in a 

 ruined garden near Larnaca. 



This garden was made for the public, and is situated about a 

 quarter of a mile from the old town of Larnaca. It has been 

 suffered to fall info decay, and is now quite neglected. Mr. 

 Mallock has described many beautiful scenes in his book, but I 

 think he could have found few more beautiful than this old 

 garden with its deserted gardener's house, now a heap of ruins, 

 but overgrown with masses of luxuriant vegetation, with beauti- 

 ful flowers peeping out here and there as if charitably endeavour- 

 ing to hide the negligence of man, and to turn the desolation 

 into a scene of beauty. I got several prizes in this garden, but 

 found the Myriapods were principally represented by the species 

 I have mentioned. 



After leaving Larnaca I rode across the plain country 

 through blazing heat, which was rapidly parching up the ground 

 to a uniform brown colour. At every stopping-place I found 

 the same species of Scolopendra and of Lithohius. After a few 

 days I began to get up among the mountains of the northern 

 range, and the burning heat of the treeless plain was gradually 

 exchanged for the cool shade of the pine-trees and the fresh air 

 of the mountains. As I ascended higher and higher the tem- 

 perature grew cooler till I reached the top of Mount Troodos, the 

 ancient Olympus. Here in the month of May the snow still 

 lingered in white patches, and the air was clear and cold. I 

 remained on the top of Troodos for a week, while jl made a close 

 examination of the fauna to . be found ^tftere. I was much 

 surprised to find the identical species of Scolopendra and 



