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



283 



erosion of rivers anil brooks the surface has been deeply eroded and consists mostly of hill-ridges, the tops 

 of which are smoothly rounded, separated by regular river-systems. The mountain-heights increase gradually 

 towards the Troodos-Mountains. The valley-sides are often rather steep, and that the erosion is still in 

 progress may be understood from the great quantities of mire in the streams, and from the numerous 

 greater or smaller slidetlats, which are seen everywhere, especially at the curves of the rivers. These 

 mountain-ridges are very poor in water, and they are therefore clothed by a strongly xerophile vegetation 

 consisting chietly of low, evergreen 

 thorny shrubs which grow so openly, 

 that the gray-white colour of the soil 

 is visible everywhere. On the steep 

 slants, where earth-slides frequently take 

 place, the shrubs are very spai'ce. On 

 the dry hill-ridges some stunted Pi7iHs 

 halepensis, Ceratonia Siliqua and Olm 

 I'uropaea, of which the latter ones have 

 pei'haps originally been planted, are the 

 only trees met with. At the bottom of 

 the valleys, and also on the, more or 

 less prominent ledges and terraces of 

 the valley-sides, where the soil is suf- 

 ficiently watered either by nature or by 

 art, trees, on the contrary, grow in con- 

 siderable numbers. On the .30th of April, 

 1905, I noted the following species on 

 a dry little hill in the neighbourhood of 

 the village: Trees: Oleu eiuopaea^ 

 wild, and Crataegus Azarolus, singly. 

 S h rubs: Bhamnus oleoides subsp. iiruc- 

 ciw, spai'se, Pistacia Lentiscus, rather 

 numerous, Calycotome villosa, sparse. 

 Genista sphaceluta var. BovilViana, nu- 

 merous, Cistiis villosus var. creticus, 

 numerous, Galium suherosum, rather 

 numerous, Lithospermum hispidiihcm, 

 numerous, Sangiiisorha spinosa, rather 

 numerous. Thymus capitatus, rather 

 numerous, Onosma fruticosum, numerous. 

 Herbs: Phagnalon graeeum, in quanti- 

 ties, Centaurea ■pallcscens subsp. hyuloleins, common, Bramca nigra, lunnerous, Sinapis alba, sparse, Lagoecia 

 cuminoides, in quantities, Caucalis laptophyUa, in great quantities, Matthiola longipetala, sparse, Scabiosa 

 sicula and Pterocephalm i)apposus, sparse, Atractrjlis cancdlata, rather numerous, Hcdgsarum spinosissimum 

 subsp. pallens, rather numerous, Nigella Nigellastriim, sparse, Banunculns asiatieus (high, white-tlowered 

 form), sparse, Mieropus hotnbycimts, rather numerous, Erax eriosphaera, scarce, Filago germanicu subsp. 

 eriocephala, sparse, and subsp. decumbens, rather numerous, Helichrysnm rupicolum subsp. brachyphyllum, 

 numerous. Astragalus cyprius, sparse, Hippocrepis unisiliquosa, scarce, Onobrychis Crista GalU, numerous, 

 0. venosa, sparse, Malva aegyptiea, sparse, Aspliodelus ramosus subsp. microcarjms, sparse, Trifolium 

 stellatum, numerous, T. procumbens, numerous, T. purpuream subsp. pamphylieum, numerous, Plantago 

 Lagopus, numerous, P. Psyllium, sparse, Crapina Crupinastrum, numerous, Zozimia absinfhi folia, sparse. 



Fig. 114. 



Brauiih of Rhamnus olcoidcs L. subsp. ijraccus Boiss, et lieut. ('/i. 

 To the Lett Flower, magnified. 



