IV. List of Spontaneous Vascular Plants hitherto observed in Cyprus. 



In tlio Ibllowiny list are enumerated all species of ferns and rtoweriny plants ^vhicli are liitliei-to, 

 as far as I have been able to ascertain, known to grow spontaneously in the island. Excluded arc tlic 

 cultivated species, of which a rather considerable numbci- are incorporated in Kotschv's enumeration.') 



It was ori.cinally the authors intention to yive iiere only a list of his own deteiminations, but 

 when seeing liow the indications I'cgai'ding Cyprian plants ai'c scattered about in periodicals and monographs, 

 he thought it would be, fi'om a phytogeographical point of view, desirable to complete his own observations 

 Avith those of other investigators. A compilation of the whole iiora of Cyprus has never been published 

 since 1865, when Unoer and Kotschy wrote theii' book, and how great a development has not our know- 

 ledge of oriental plants undergone after that time! It will be understood, that the author can only under- 

 take the responsibility for the correctness of indications of other botanists in cases, when he has seen the 

 specimens, on which the indications are based. Whenever it seemed probable that a confusion had taken 

 place, this is expressly mentioned, and the author lias then gencially ventured to mention liis own sug- 

 gestions. To the extent rendered possible by the circumstances, he has tried in the herbaria of (ieneva and 

 Vienna to verify such indications based upon Kotschy's and Sintenis' collections, which seemed to be 

 dubious. Unfortunately he has not had occasion to go to Oxford to study the materials contained in 

 iSiBTHORc's hcibariuni. 



A few words of explanation regarding some of the piinciples pursued in the elaboration of the 

 following list may lind theii' place here. The families and genera of plants are, with few exceptions 

 arranged after Engler and Prantl's "Die natiirlichen Ptlanzeufamilicn"; the nomenclature is in agreement 

 with the rules fixed by the International I5otanical Congress at Vienna in 1905. In the synonymy of each 

 species arc mentioned those names, which arc necessary to explain the combination of names preferi'cd, 

 and those occurring in works dealing' with the botany of Cyprus. Only such indications as give tii'st hand 

 pai'ticulars regarding the occurrence of the species in the island are quoted. Those Avhich only repeat 

 facts already earlier published arc generally omitted; exceptions arc only made with monographs conlirming 

 the determinations, as well as with Boissier's "Flora orientalis", the great fundamental work on the 

 vegetation of all Oriental countries. 



In the post-Linnaean floristical literature two principal tendencies may be distinguished, going in 

 opposite directions. While some authors treat the species in the widest sense possible (as Linnaeus 

 generally but not always did), others give specific range and name to even the slightest forms who transfer 

 their qualities to their otf-spring. To find a fair "middle- way" between these two extremes has been 

 the endeavoui' of many of the most highly recognized florists of the last century; but as yet the repre- 

 sentatives of both the extreme tendencies seem to have acted in better harmony with the natural affinities 

 within the vegetable kingdom. The maintainei-s of great species have seen the close I'clations connecting 

 forms which differ one from another only in characters of less importance, and tlioy have feared, tliat an 



M llNliEll mill KOTSOHY, Die lliscl CviMTll. \l . ITti — '6U2. 



