254 



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



1. First — nearest the sea-shore — we have the slightly sloping, almost flat beach, which is 

 so far moistened by the underground-water that the sand is kept quiet. This beach may be of a varying 

 breadth, according as the coast will be more or less sloping. As a rule it is but very little inside the 

 border of the flood, when the tide is high. The vegetation of tliis zone is utterly poor both as regards 

 species and individuals. 



2. Inside this beach we have the zone of the rising dunes. Hei'e the sandmasses, washed ashore 

 by the waves, are higher than the ordinary level of the water, and therefore can be drifted by the wind. 



Fig. 95. Cistanche tinetoria Beck, parasitical on the Roots of Atriplex Halimus L. 



The masses of sand are arranged by the wind into long dunes, often several meters high ; as a rule this row 

 of dunes will be parallel with the coast, their direction, however, being liable to vary according to the 

 predominant direction of the wind. Often several parallel rows of dunes are seen, one inside the other. 

 In Cyprus as well as in other places, where dunes occur, they sometimes are to be found wandering 

 in towards the country. In the very „live" dunes where the surface of the sand is hardly ever completely 

 quiet, as a rule no vegetation will occur except only a few species of pei'ennial plants, especially grasses 

 and such herbs and shrubs as are able to grow with the ends of their boughs, as the sand rises, so 

 that they will never be totally buried. By degrees these plants may stop the motion of the sandmasses 

 and thus keep the dunes quiet; at last the surface of the dunes will become so even that lots of other 

 plants, annual and perennial, may grow there. 



