Remarks on the most Important Plant-Societies of the Island. 255 



3. Inmost is the zone of sandy fiats, kept quiet by the vegetation, and of old dunes, where the 

 driftiny of the sand is practically or totally at an end. The surface of this zone is covered with a vege- 

 tation, rich in variety of species, of annual and perennial flowering plants. Later on this vegetation will 

 be dealt with more closely. Especially from the cduntries near the coasts of the North Sea an exten- 

 sive literature has been published, that with great minuteness deals with the numerous phases in the 

 never ceasing struggle of the vegetation against the sand. In Cyprus too this struggle may often be seen 

 to recommence after its apparently coming to an end. The gales may break openings in a weak plant- 

 covering, forming thus new wandering sand dunes in places tliat have for a long time been kept quiet 

 by the vegetation. 



Among the plants that I observed in Cyprus on the beach in front of the sand dunes, the fol- 

 lowing are the most important ones: Cahile maritima, Atriplex Halimus, Salsola Kali and Erynyiuni 

 maritimum. All those foui' are exclusive, widely distributed htoral species. Of these Atriplex Halimus 

 is the most common in Cyprus; it is seen everywhere on the seashore, not only on the sandy beaches. 

 Sometimes it is planted in hedges along the shore to prevent the flight of the sand. It is not rarely 

 seen to grow up to a height of .3—3.5 meters. Although I have seen it several times on the open beach 

 outside the sand dunes, it is most frequently to be found a little farther up on the shore. The other 

 species occur more sporadically. — In the neighbourhood of the lighthouse of Capo Gatto I found near the 

 shore a few specimens of the large Orobanchacea Cistanche findoria, parasitic upon the roots of Atriflex 

 Halimus. The whole plant is of a beautiful yellow colour, the corolla finely citron-coloured. The biggest 

 one was no less than 76 cm. high, and the juicy stem was 28 cm. in circumference (the measure taken 

 at the base). The inflorescence of the same plant was 56 cm. long, containing about 200 flowers (Fig. 95). 



The most important species of gramineous plants forming sand dunes in Cyprus are: Ammaphila 

 arenaiia var. australis, Triticum jmieeum and Imperata cylindrica. The species that seems to play the 

 most important part and to be the most widely extended as well, is Ammopliila arenaria; it occurs here 

 — as in the countries near the Mediterranean on the whole — under a variety (or subspecies?), somewhat 

 dift'ering fi'om the common North European plant. Especially on the sandy expanses near Hagia Napa 

 it grows abundantly and contributes very much to bind the moving sand dunes. In the tract of drifting 

 sand near the Pamagusta Ray, in the neighbourhood of ancient Salamis, it is often replaced by Triticum 

 junceuni. which grows in quite the same way. When I visited the place in the middle of April, it had 

 not developed its spica, so it had to be determined according to its vegetative parts only; the morphology 

 of its shoots, however, and above all the anatomic structure of the interior of the leaves, are so charac- 

 teristic that the correctness of the determination is beyond doubt. This species is also widely distributed 

 along the coasts of the Mediterranean, and at the coasts of Northern and Western Europe as well. 

 Imperata cylindrica I have had the opportunity of observing in several places forming veritable dunes. 

 It was especially numerous in the tracts near Limassol and in the tracts of drift-sand near the northern 

 coast, e. g. in the district between Hag. Epiktikos and Hag. Amvrosios. 



Of perennial hei'bs that grow in the sand dunes and are able to bind the sand, if its motion is 

 not uncommonly great, are to be mentioned above all Echium sericeimi subsp. Haldcsyi and Medicayo 

 marina. Both of these are decidedly xerophilously built, densely grey-haired plants, with the important 

 ditt'ei'ence, howevei-, that the haii's of Echium sericeum are stiff and bristling, while Medicayo marina has 

 a soft and thick felted cover over its stems and leaves. The above-mentioned Echium is common both 

 in drift sand and elsewhere on dry hills in all the lower regions of the island; along the coasts it is a 

 charateristic plant that every traveller cannot but notice. Medicayo marina too 1 have noted in a series 

 of habitations in the regions of drift sand of the island. In the sandy plains near Salamis it formed 

 a great many small, more or less cushion-formed dunes, about 1 m. high and up to some meters in 

 diameter. When digging into the sand I could state that the greatest number of shoots with flowers and 

 fruits — reaching just a little above the surface of such a „cushion of sand" — as a rule would belong to the 

 same individual. The structure of the interior of one of these dunes appeared to be mainly such as the 



