222 Eemarks on the most Important Plant-Societies of the Island. 



his way the ploug-hman simply will turn his plough around it. Any manuring of the cornfields— natural 

 or artificial — is almost an unknown thing in Cyprus. Nevertheless the crop has not been diminished 

 through thousands of years; this fact is chiefly to be ascribed to the regulai- inflow of organic mud from 

 the mountains together with the water of the iri'igators. There are also other moments of impoitance in 

 this respect: the cultivated fields ai-e left brackish to a great extent, and through the experience of many 

 generations the population has learnt to use an adequate rotation of crops. 



Wheat, barley and oats are the cereals chiefly cultivated in Cyprus in our days, the cultivation 

 ot the two foimer especially being widely spread. The barley is generally 4-rowed, but rather often, 

 especially in Messaria, 6-rowed barley is also to be found. All the wheat 1 have seen has had loug 

 beards of the ear. Very commonly a kind of wheat may be seen, in which the corn as well as the 

 ditferent chatts is white, while the beard is dark, blackish brown. Maize is not so frequently cultivated; 

 it is to be found chiefly in the low country. Among other herbs much cultivated in Cyprus I shall only 

 mention some of the most important: Horses' beans ( Vicia Faha), madder (Ruliiu tindorum), cotton 

 (Gosi^ypium herbaceum and G. harhade.nse) sesame (Semmum indiciim), vetch (Vicia sativa and V. Ervilia). 



The corn is sown in the end of September, before the rain of the autumn has seriously begun, 

 or in January when the rain has chiefly finished. People sow with their own hands. To judge from 

 Norwegian ways they sow lather thinly along the large flats. They hardly even think of winiowing the 

 grain. During the winter months, January, February and March, the cornfields grow fast; the climate 

 during this season is as favoui'able as it can possibly be for the growing of the corn: in the beginning 

 much rain that gradually decreases, and on the other hand heat increasing regularly fi'om one month to 

 another. Towards the end of March the cornfields ripen fast, and during April and the beginning of May 

 the corn is cut. 



In the same season — the months of winter and early spring — , there is, however, also a good 

 opportunity of studying the rich vegetation of weeds ottering a rich field of observation to the botanist 

 — such as is the case with all Oriental cornfields. The vegetation of weeds flourishing during this 

 part of the year in the cornfields of Cyprus (and also in the bean-fields) is unusually varying and 

 rich in species. Among the species occurring there are to be seen plants familiar to us from the corn- 

 fields of Europe and also a series of genuine Oriental species. A lot of ditt'erent plant families are 

 represented: these are the ones that are perhaps richest in species: Gramina, LiUaeeae, CarynphyUaccae, 

 Banioiculaceue, Crticiferae, Laguminosae, Umbelliferae, Scrophulariucecte and Compositae. Some predominant 

 species occur in great masses, colouring the fields more or less widely. Among the most conspicuous and 

 most common are the led poppy (Piquirer Ixhom:^), two yellow species of Chrysanthemum (Ch. ^eydum and 

 Ch. coronariiimj, the white Torch/Hum aegyptiaaim, the violet Entcaria iileppica, etc. Along with these 

 species a great numbei' of other species also occurs. To illustrate the richness of this vegetation of weeds 

 I shall quote the words Sintenis spoke on the vegetation of the fields round the old temple Hagia Phane- 

 romene in the immediate neighbourhood of Larnaka: 



„Nahe bei Alt-Larnaka, unfern der Wasserleitung, fand ich fruchtbare Felder. Das Getreide und 

 die an 4' hohen Bohnen, Vicin Faha. standen hier am 22. Februar bereits in voller Bliithe; zwischen ihnen 

 driingte sich eine solche Fiille bliihender Gewilchse, die Felder in einen wahren Bliithenteppich wandelnd, 

 dass ich nicht unterlassen kann, eine Aufzahlung der hiei' zu Anfang Marz gesammelten Planzen folgen 

 zu lassen, um so weniger, als diese schone Feldflora eine charakteristische fur die Insel ist, wic ich sie 

 an iihnlichen Oertlichkeiten iiberall antraf. — 



Es bliihen hier gleichzeitig : 



Phalaris minor, Lolium perenne, L. temulentum, Bellevalia trifuliata, Allium necqwlitanum, A. 

 decipiens'^), Gladiolus segetum, Emex spinosa, Plantago Lagopus, P. Psyllium, Anthemis Palaestina, Chry- 

 santhemum segetum, Ch. coronarium, Calendula arvensis, Carduus argenteus, Rhagadiolus stellatus, Hedypnois 



') The oceurranci; in ( '.ypnis uf this species seems rather duhious. 



