220 Remarks ou the most Important Plant-Societies of the Island. 



devoid of other trees one may find beautifully developed platanes, the occurrance of which is an unmis- 

 takable token of water being to be found, if not visible above the earth, at all events at a short distance 

 below the surface. The platanes in Cyprus will not rarely reach considerable dimensions. The biggest one 

 I ever saw, was at the old church Hagia Mavra near the village of Kilani; this quite unique old 

 beautiful tree totally overshadowed the old church. The ti-unk was tall and erect; its circumference was 

 6..52 m., measured ca. 15 m. above the ground. The top was regular and ric'hly ramified, although not so 

 widely stretched out as might be expected from the height of the tree (Fig. 74:). An other mighty and 

 rarely beautiful platane I saw near a spi'ing, Exo Mylos, not far from Stavros tis Psochas in the district 

 of Paphos; the circumference of the trunk I found to be 3.77 m. Near a church, Panagia Chrysosotiros, 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of the village of Kyperunda is a group of platanes distinguished by their 

 uncommon way of growing: From each of the roots 2 to 7 slim trunks, one about as thick as the other, 

 grow out, reaching a considerable height; not till quite near the summit these trunks have a few branches. 

 Even far back into the Quarternary time platanes have grown near the springs of Cyprus; this 

 is clearly shown by the fact that impressions of their leaves have been found in the calcareous tufa-beds 

 near Kazan; throughout the mighty deposits of tufa the leaves of this tree occurred in innumerable lots 

 (Cp. pag. 200). 



6. Mesophile Plant^Societies. 



I>y tills name Waumini; has united a series of ditferent plant societies all of which having this 

 feature in common that they for their ordinary development prefer a soil of a moderate moisture. Most 

 of the species belonging to these societies, even if they have a considerable faculty of supporting a com- 

 paratively great drought as well as rather much moisture, as a genei-al rule will lack all especially typical 

 adaptations of xeiophile and hydrophile plants. 



In a dry climate like that of Cyprus there is hardly any more room for mesophile plant societies 

 than for hydrophile ones. In conformity with the latter they do not grow except in places where they 

 are protected against drying up, at least during the whole of the spring and the greater part of the 

 summer. Differently from hydrophile plant societies however, they require a soil somewhat aired without 

 stagnant water down at least to the depth that is reached by the roots. 



In the lower regions of Cyprus the mesophile plant societies are chiefly to be seen iu the cul- 

 tivated ground; as the climate is, the necessary moisture will have to be procured here to a large extent 

 artificially. Partly mesophile plants are also to be found in dark shadowy valleys where the sun can not dry 

 up the soil. Only on the top of Chionistra, the highest among the Troodos-mountains, at a height of about 

 1 900 m. above the sea and even more, a plant society belonging to the same group is to be found, 

 growing in open ground exposed to the sunshine. The soil is kept moist in this place watered by the 

 melting rests of the snow of the winter. 



The mesophile plant societies of the island may then be arranged in this way: 

 J. Plant Societies in Cultivated Ground. 



a. Vegetation of Cultivated Fields. 



b. Ruderate Vegetation. 



c. Vegetation of Gardens and Artificial Plantations. 



2. Vegetation in Shadowy Valleys. 



3. Mountain Fields. 



