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



251 



appeared at all stages of development — from tiny buds in places only just free from the snow to ripened 

 fruits where it had long been off. Muscari comosum, deviating from the common Cyprian f'oi-m by a 

 narrower perigonium, grew somewhat sparsely by beds of snow near the summit. Ornithogalum chionophihim 

 and, according to Kotschy also Crocus cypriiis, grow in the same way. I did not succeed in finding 

 the latter; it had probably faded away before my arrival. 



It is worthy of notice that all the plants mentioned here as growing near snow-beds are provided 

 with bulbs, subterranean tubers, or— in one case (Ranunculus cadmicus) — with thick fleshy rootlets, full 



Fig. 93. Copses of Be>beris cretica. near the Top of Chionistra, together with a Couple of small 

 Specimens of Juniperus foetidissima. 



of reserve food. Thus they are protected against exsiccation. As late as midsummer (1905) the last 

 patches of snow had not yet disappeared, and the ground which was thoroughly wet with newly-melted 

 snow, would in all probability keep damp for a long time onwards. 



A biological curiosity concerning one of the above-named species must be mentioned. On the 

 subterranean part of the stems bearing flowers and likewise on the underground part of its leaf-stalks 

 Corydalis rutaefolia is thickly covered with soft velvety hairs, no doubt serving as root-hairs. The over- 

 ground part of the plant is quite smooth. I examined a number of specimens and found this peculiar 

 pilosity in all. Particles of earth and sand stuck to the cilia and could only be detached with difficulty, 

 even when the plants were washed in water. I have examined in Boissier's herbarium the whole 

 collection of C. rutaefolia with its var. unifiora, as well as the related species C. persica, C. vertieUlaris 

 and C. Griffithsii, and have found in all a similar pilosity on the subterranean part of the stem. In a 

 specimen of C. vertieUlaris found by Th. Kotschy — "ad nives deliquiscentes in m. Elbrus supra pagum 



