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



of Kallepia, Letymbu, Leraona and Kannaviu. Not far from here was formerly the place of the above 

 mentioned sacred StaupoXi.pa'jou-oak. One of the biggest trees of this district is found in the near neigh- 

 bourhood of the Turkish village Kurdaka, on the road to Khulu. The circumference of the stem, breast- 

 high, is G.20 m., and even 6 meters above the ground, above the lowest branches, it has almost exactly 

 the same thickness. The crown is rich and mighty, and its greatest diameter is 32 m. Another big oak 

 grows in a field not far from Lemona. Breasthigh this tree also measures just 6 2o m. in circuit, but the 

 trunk is not so high, and the crown, although beautifully and rcgulaily shaped, is not so richly developed; 

 its greatest diameter is 21 m. In Fig. 118 is reproduced a photogi'aph of an oak with a mighty wide- 

 spread crown near the village of Kannaviu; the tree stands just in the middle of a corn-iicld. The 

 circumference of the trunk, breasthigh, is 4. 13 m., the diameter of the crown about 30 m. Another oak 

 near to the same village measures, breasthigh, 5.5.5 m. in circumference; the one half part of the crown of 

 this tree has some years ago been burnt otf, and the remains are not very important.— Also at the village 

 of Episkopi, in the tracts suirounding Stavros tis Psochas, in the valley of Evrykhu, and in other places 

 I have seen big and beautiful oaks. (Fig. 119). 



All real forest-societies on Cyprus are of a decidedly xerophilo us character. Trees which need 

 a somewhat greater moisture can only thrive near the bottom of the valleys, along the river-sides and 

 at brooks, and the wooded mountain-slopes are so poor in water that only plants of xerophilous building 

 can thrive there. 



The forests now found on Cyprus are formed partly of tlat-leaved trees and partly of conifers. 

 Of tlat-leaved trees there is at present only one species which to any extent forms real forests, viz. the 

 beautiful endemical oak-species Qiiercus alnifolia. Of conifers the wild cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), 

 two pine-species (Pinits Imlepensis and P. nigra subsp. Fallasiana) and, to a very limited extent, a form 

 of cedar peculiar to the island (Cedrus libanotica subsp. hrevifolia) are creative of forests. 



a. Forests chiefly constituted by the Evergreen Cyprian Oak (Quereus alnifolia). This oak- 

 species, one of the most beautiful, and phyto-geographically one of the most interesting trees of Cyprus, 

 has a very large distribution in the mountain-tracts in the southern and western part of the island. Its 

 area of distribution seems to correspond very closely to that occupied by the igneous rocks of the Troodos- 

 mountains. Both in north (in the Evrykhu-valley), in east (in the tracts near Lefkara and Lythrodonda) 

 and south (near the village of Apsu, north of Limassol) I have noticed that it goes as far as the igneous 

 rocks, but that it does not pass the limits of the distribution of these. It has not come to my knowledge 

 that it has been found on Cyprus outside the area here dealt with (compare the map, p. 7); nor is it 

 known to grow outside the island. 



Quereus alnifolia is a small tree, which only under favorable conditions grows as high as 6 — 8 m.; 

 in some few cases, especially on the northern slope of the mountains, I have seen it reach a somewhat 

 greater height. Over large stretches its average height does not exceed 2 å 3 m. The trunk is generally 

 not much more than of an arm's thickness, exceptionally it may, however, attain a circumference of up 

 to 0.7 å 0.9 m. The wood is very hard and valuable and supplies a great and important part of the 

 wood-material, which is used by the village-population; XaTai or Xax.ia is the ordinary native name of the tree. 



With its stiff coriaceous leaves, on the upper side glossy, smooth and dark-green, below golden- 

 felted (reminding somewhat of the leaves of Camelia), Quereus alnifolia is a very beautiful tree. It is very 

 easily contented and thrives well even on the driest hill-sides. A circumstance, which makes it especially 

 valuable from an economical point of view, is its power of regenerating from the stubs; after the lapse of 

 10 — 15 years since the last felling the stems may be profitably cut down again. 



In the vegetation of Cyprus Q. alnifolia plays a similar part as Q. Ilex in the western countries 

 of the Mediterranean. It forms extensive woods over most of the mountain-ridges of which the Troodos- 

 rank is composed. In some places the trees form a proportionally sparse and open growth, in others they 

 form dense, hardly penetrable thickets. In many places Q. alnifolia forms growths completely or almost pure. 



