Remarks on the most Important Plant-Societies of the Island. 



235 



4 trees the girth of which were 6.10, 6.24, 6.77 and 7.16 m. in breast-heig-ht. I have been informed by 

 Mr. G. Vassiliou that there is a tree thiclier still near the village Psevda in the same district.— The 

 old olive trees are almost always hollow. Of the trunk, which in spite of its being so thick, as a rule 

 is no higher than 4 or 5 m., often only a testa of some decimeters is left. The wood is rather loose, 

 and the trees sutfer very much from the rough treatment they must undergo during the harvest time. 

 Broken boughs leave big holes in the trunk, and these holes when growing will develop into deep fissui-es, 

 cleaving the trunk in its total length. The parts of the trunk formed in this way may continue their 

 existence through several years. Through their own weight they are little by little more removed from 

 eachothers. Little by little a cicatrization will take place from the margins of the living bark; only iu 

 very few instances, however, the enormous wounds will be even proximately covered; as a rule 30 — 50 % 

 of the surface of the trunk will remain naked, exposed to the weather. In this way we very often see 

 an old olive tree divided into 2 to 5 other "individuals", being able to lead an existence of their own 



through a long time. The schematic 

 sections of four trunks (Fig. 79) will 

 give an illustration of this; the wood 

 is indicated through oblique frosting, 

 the living bark thi'ough a double con- 

 tour. From a theoretical point of 

 view this division of old olive trees 

 may be considered as a kind of primi- 

 tive vegetative multiplication, being 

 analogous to the duplication of several 

 inferior organisms. This multiplication 

 is, however, without any importance 

 to the existence of the species, for 

 the fact is that the new "individuals" 

 formed in this way have not before 

 them the future life of a normal young 

 individual, the duplication being only 

 part of the decline and death of the 

 old individuals. 



The carob tree grows as a wild 



tree in several places in the lonely 



mountainous parts of the island, f. 



inst. — according- to Ungek — in the 



mountains round the monastery Makhaeras; I have myself found wild trees f. inst. in the neighbourhood 



of the village Vavatsinia not far from Makhaeras. 



As a wild tree it is not as a rule veiy big. When it is cultivated, on the other hand, it often 

 grows up to be a big leafy tree with a dense shadowy top. "It is an evergreen and long-lived tree, 

 which easily renews itself from the root, growing as high as 30 to 40 and sometimes 50 to GO feet. The 

 diametre of the trunk sometimes reaches 4 feet. It thrives in any kind of soil and especially in porous, 

 marly and volcanic soils, but not in marshy lands. It will grow and develop even in the driest and 

 rockiest ground and resist wonderfully continued drought owing to the very long top-root it develops; but 

 it can not stand without bad results a temperature of — 3" C. ; for this season it always thrives better 

 near the sea. In places where Citrus trees can grow in liie open, the carob-tree is able to bear fruit; 

 but it cannot grow further north than the zone of the olive-tree. It develops quickly in a fertile soil, 

 whilst its growth is slow in rocky and dry places "(Gennadius '). As an example of the dimensions 



Fig. 79. Schematic Sections of fuur did (Mive-Trecs at Kophino (cii. the Text) 



1) P. Gennadius, The Carob-Tree, p. 6. Nikosia 1902. 



