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



V. vesicaria Centaiirea pallescens subsp. hijalolepis 



Anthemis tricolor Catananche lutea 



A. Cotiila Scolymus hwpanicia^ 



Broteroa corymhosa Leontodon tuherosum subsp. OUrieri 



Cynara Cardunculus \ Lagoseris bifidfl 



b. Rock-Steppes. By this name Wakming has united a series of xerophile plant-societies, in 

 which perennial herbs, undershrubs and shrubs constitute the predominant element, and among- which 

 several are very widely spread, especially in hot temperate countries. A plant-society of this kind, 

 known to us from the South of France through the works of Flahault by the name of "La Garigue", 

 plays an important part in most of the countries of the Mediterranean. It is also very frequently met 

 with in the low-lands of Cyprus, where it, according to the various natural couditions, occurs undei- rather 

 diverse forms, connected, however, to each other by transition-forms, all of which deserved a closer study 

 than circumstances allowed me to undertake. 



The vegetation, we are going to deal with, is especially frequent on the dry and sunny hill-sides, 

 and on the low mountain-ridges, where the rocky ground is either quite bare, or covered by a thin layer 

 of earth, deficient in organic mould, and chiefly formed by disintegration of the rock itself. 



The vegetation of such dry hills is always so sparse as to show the colour of the soil clearly 

 between the individual plants. In dry weather the ground is generally of a light, brownish, or grayish 

 colour; in the district of the Idalian formation, however, especially in the southern part of the island, 

 the ground is often dazzling white. Various isolated maquis-shrubs of xerophile building (Pi^tacia Len- 

 fiscus, Onosma fruticosiim, Lithospermnm hispidulum, Cistus rillosus var. creticus a. o ), and even trees, 

 (e. g. P'wiis halepensis, Orataegus Azarolus, Ceratonia Siliqua, Olea eiiropaea) may be found, although not 

 so dense as to give the vegetation the character of a maquis-thicket or a wood. 



The principal part of the plants, characteristic to the rock-steppes, consists of herbs, that may be 

 perennial, biennial or annual. By their heariness, or otherwise by subterranean tubers or bulbs, many 

 of them are protected against drying out in the hot and dry summer-season Others again are of a rather 

 tender and delicate building, finishing their life-time in the course of spring, and yielding ripe seeds before 

 the drought of summer sets in in earnest. Several gramineous species of the grass-steppes ai'e also seen 

 here, e. g. Triticum oratum, Lagurits ovatw, species of Briza and Bromits; furthermore several others 

 among which Andropogon hirtus, and A. Sorghum subsp. hnkpcnm. On the whole, however, the grasses 

 in the plant-society in question, play a comparatively inferior part. 



A list of species, deriving from a typical locality near to the village of Mazoto, will here be 

 enumerated. On the 15th of April 1905 I collected here the following plants: Of shrubs: Cistus 

 viUosus var. creticus (common), C. sahriifolii(s (scarce), Pis'aciu Lentii^cu.^ (sparse), Rhanmus oleoides subsp. 

 graecus (common"!, Ruhiis ulmifolius subsp. anatolicus (at several places, but most numerous in the very 

 neighbourhood of the village), Prasium mnjus (common). Onosma fruticosum (common). Of herbs' 

 Asparagus acutifolius (at several places), Tragopogon glaber (at several places), Anthyllis tetraphyllu 

 (scarce), Tamus communis v.ar. cretica (scarce), Ranunculus fiaheUatus, Lloydia graeca (sparse), Phagnalmi 

 graecum (sparse), Ophrys fusca subsp. iricolor, 0. mammosa (scarce), 0. oestrifera (numerousi, Zozimia 

 absinthifolia (numerous), Nonnea philistnca (scarce), Trifolium tomentosum (sparse), Bellis silvcstris (scarce), 

 Orobanche alba (sparse, living as a parasite on various shrubs), Cuscuta glohulnris (common), Fagonia cretica 

 (common). Of grasses: Avena barl/ata subsp. Wiestii (sparse). Briza maxima (scarce). 



The vegetation has much in common with that of the grass-steppes, and also with that of the 

 maquis-thickets; it may be said to occupy an intermediate place between those two plant-societies. Tran- 

 sitions to either of these are often found 



