INTRODUCTION 7 



The stone pine forms characteristic woods on the sandy shores 

 of the western Riviera. The finest stone pine-woods of the French 

 Riviera are on the sandy shore at La Plage d'Hyeres, and extend 

 along the isthmus connecting the peninsula of Giens and the main- 

 land. Other examples occur at Le Foux near St. Tropez, and at La 

 Bocca near Cannes. Here the Cannes golf links are intersected with 

 strips of woodland formed of this Beautiful tree. Stone pine-woods 

 occur again on the Italian coast, and the species is very often planted 

 singly as an ornamental tree. The finest example in Southern France 

 is the Pin de Bertaud near St. Tropez. The tree is also abundant 

 on the low-lying marls of the Argens Valley behind St. Raphael and 

 Frejus. 



Associated with the stone pine-woods on the isthmus mentioned 

 above is a very luxuriant scrub, consisting for the most part of the 

 evergreen shrubs of the maquis, among which a kind of juniper 

 ( Juniper u s phxnicea), the lentisc (Pistacia Lentiscus], and the broom- 

 like Spnrtium junceum are particularly fine and abundant. The 

 maritime and Aleppo pines also occur on the isthmus though in 

 much less quantity than the stone pine. 



SANDY SHORE VEGETATION. 



On the sandy shore of the Rade d'Hyeres, in front of the stone 

 pine- woods, there is a vegetation closely resembling that of the sandy 

 shores of north-west Europe and including many of the same species ; 

 for instance the sea-rocket (Cakile maritima), a very fleshy cruci- 

 ferous plant with pink flowers, the sea spurge {Euphorbia Paralias), 

 and the sea holly (Eryngium mart it muni). The low dunes are held 

 together by various plants including the marram grass (Ammophila 

 arenaria), which is the same plant that binds our northern dunes. 

 Among these widely distributed species are others which are purely- 

 Mediterranean, such as Matthiola tricuspidata^ Silene nicceensis, Cru- 

 cianella maritima, Euphorbia Pithyusa and the tall flesh-coloured 

 Asphodelus microcarpus with tuberous roots. 



Partly owing to the wide distribution given to shore plants by 

 ocean currents, partly because of the similarity of the conditions of 

 life on all sea coasts, it is very usual to find the same littoral species 

 extending over great ranges of latitude and longitude. 



At the back of the marram grass dunes juniper and pine seedlings 

 may be found growing in the shelter of the marram tufts, and in this 

 way the scrub and woodland is constantly endeavouring to extend 

 its range, so far as the wind very severe on the middle of this 

 Giens isthmus will allow it. 



Most of the Riviera coast is, however, rocky, and where rocks come 

 down steeply into the sea there is little characteristic shore vegeta- 

 tion to be found. The maritime or the Aleppo pines, often stunted 

 by the wind and sometimes transformed (as at Carqueiranne and the 

 islands of Porquerolles and St. Honorat) into the strangest growth 



