Remarks on the most Tiuportant Plaut-Socioties of the Islaiul. 



■209 



fP 



have the next zone of vegetation, being- characterized by such plants as Mesemhryanthemmn nodifiorum, 

 Chlmnijdophnra tridentafa. Capgclla procmnhens and some sporadic specimens of the succulent shrubs Zij- 

 (luph/Uum album, and Suaeda fruticosa. In some places the latter plants may be found to form inde- 

 pendent small growths, among which knotty copies of Statice graeca are seen growing. Pkmtrujo Lcujoims, 

 Antliemis cretica and Sagina maritima along with some small species of gi'ass not flowering as yet, covered 

 the ground between the bushes. Species of Mcdimgo are also growing here, and now and then single 

 copies of Scorpiurus suhviUosa. More predominant even than Salicornia was near the Salt Lake itself, it 

 is in some wide, very wet salt marshes between the Salt Lake and the ocean. The bottom is more oozy, 

 covered with rayxophyceae. Bclli.'^ miniin grows here as well as Clildmi/iloplmni IruUnidiitn. PlunUt^ 

 Lagopus and Triglochin huUmsum, the latter very abundantly. 



The Salt Lake of Limassol stretches just across 

 the peninsula of Cyprus extending fai-thest to the South; it 

 lies to the west of Ijimassol and is on the level of the ocean 

 just as was the case with the Salt I^ake of Larnaka. It is 

 about 4 km. long and 8 km. broad and cuts otf almost entirely 

 the outer pai-t of the said peninsula— with the promontories 

 Capo Gatto and Zevgari— from the rest of the island; to the 

 north and to the west the Salt Lake is severed from the ocean 

 only through low banks of sand. The Salt Lake of Limassol 

 is even less deep than that of Larnaka; even in winter, when 

 it contains most watei', the depth is not greater than 1 m., and 

 in the summer the water is completely dried up so that salt 

 can be taken from the bottom of the lake. Then there will 

 regularly come up so bad a smell from putrifying oi'ganic sub- 

 stances, as to drive away the people from the village of Akro- 

 tiri. The bottom of the lake consists of a muddy sand mixed 

 up with innumerable empty shells of bivalves, chiefly a species 

 of Cardhim. Spread over the flat bottom of the lake bushy 

 copies of Salicornia fruticosa grow abundantly — always, how- 

 ever, in open growths; it reaches a height of V2 m- and is 

 by far the most prominent species of the vegetation of this 

 place. In the higher places that are not so constantly flooded 

 some other flowering plants grow too. although the flora is 

 here also very poor in species. On the 10th of May 1905 I 

 collected here: Anugallis arrciisis subsp. pliocnicea (numerous), 

 Vaillantia hispida (in fruit; numerous), Mulva parvifiora, 

 Bujjleurum semiconqwsitum (in several places), Plantago Coronopus (abundant), Polgpogon murifinuts (frequent) 

 Crepis Imlbosa (frequent), Leptums incurratus (frequent), Statice graeca (freiiueut; the flowers were not vet 

 in blossom), Zygophijllam cdhum (rather frequent). 



A saliferous soil with a similar vegetation also occurs in several places in the inner part of the 

 island. Thus Unger and Kotschy mention „Salzmulden" from the eastern pai't of Messaria, near Syn- 

 krasi and Kamares, with a vegetation consisting of Hordeum maritimum, Polypogon monspelioms. Suaeda 

 fruticosa, Spergularia salina. Pegan.um Harmala, etc.') On an average, however, the soil of these places 

 is perhaps somewhat drier than that of the marshy reoions formerly described, and the vegetation is in 

 a state of ti'ansition towards a steppe vegetation. 



Fio-. m. 



CJiIamydophom frideiitata Ehreiil). ('/i). 

 a. A. Sing-le Flower (■•/,). 



1) Unqer mill Kotschy, Iiisfl ( 'ypeni, p. I(i9; 

 Vegetation of Cyprus — l'7 



cp. pp. 186, 362, etc. 



