Sketch of the Physical \ature of Cyprus. 



tions. The ancient, once so flourishing town of Salamis near Famagusta is at present half-buried under 

 the sand-masses, and farther southwards, at Varosha the proprietors of the well-known orange-gardens have 

 to fight constantly against the troublesome sand-dunes. Along the coast from Amathus to Limassol much 

 damage has also been caused by the drifting sand, until it was arrested through plantations of Acacia 

 longifolia, an Australian tree, by the Public Works Department. 



D. Climate. 



The following brief survey on the climatical conditions of Cyprus is chiefly based upon the official 

 measurements in the years 1881—1891, which form the subject of an interesting essay published by the 

 eminent Austrian meteorologist J. Hann.') As far as I know, there does not exist any complete systematical 

 compilation of the observations from later years; Bellamy, in his "Notes on the climate of Cyprus"^), 

 gives a table of the rainfall-measurements of the six principal towns in the years 1881 — 1902, without 

 specification, however, of the amount of wet for each month. 



The temperature and the rainfall are the two cliraatological factors, which more than others are 

 of importance to the floristical physiognomy of a country, and we shall, therefore, in the following remarks 

 only deal with those. 



From ancient time Cyprus is known as a very hot island, hotter than the greater part of the Mediter- 

 ranean countries. A lion, the symbol of tearing iicat, is represented on several of its old coins, and many 

 are the complaints of intolerable heat in the accounts of mediaeval travellers.^) 



For the years 1881 — 90 Hann has calculated the mean annual temperature of the six district- 

 towns, as follows: 



Larnaka 3-1° 51' N. Lat. 



Limassol 34" 40' — 



Paphos 34" 46' — 



Famagusta 35" 8' — 



Kyrenia 35" 21' — 



Nikosia 35" 11' — 



Hence it follows, that the island is traversed by the annual isotherm of 20 "C; in the lower 

 regions of the island the mean annual temperature approaches very nearly to that amount. According to 

 the compilation of Oberhummer,'*) Cyprus has a higher mean temperature than even the warmest meteoro- 

 logical stations in Southern Europe (Malta 19.0 "C, Gibraltar 17.3 "C, Palermo 17.9 "C.) and Asia Minor 

 (Smyrna 18.7 "C), and is but very little cooler than the stations in Syria (Beirut 20.4 "C.) and Egypt 

 (Alexandria 20.5 "C, Cairo 21.3 T.). 



The mean temperature of each montii, in the period 1881 — 90, according to Hann was: 



Larnaka Limassol Paphos Famagusta Kyrenia Nikosia 



Jan 12.0 11.7 12.1 11.1 11.5 9.7 



Febr 12.3 12.0 12.2 11.5 11.7 10.3 



March 14.8 14.4 14.5 14.3 14.5 13.4 



April 17.8 16.9 17.3 17.2 17.7 17.1 



May 21.4 20.2 20.5 20.9 21.5 21.6 



June 25.3 24.1 24.3 25.1 25.8 26.1 



p. 65-72). 



-) Quarterly Journ. of the Royal Meteorol. Soc. XXIX, p. 29—44, Lundoii 1903. 



^) Oberhummer, lusel Cypeni, p. 192 — 193. 



■*) Oberhummer, Insel Cypeni. p. 194. 

 getatiou of Cyprus — 2 



