296 



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



but in most eases — even if it without comparison constitutes the chief component of the forests— some sparse 

 specimens of other wood-species are also found, partly pines, and partly different flat-leaved trees (e. g. 

 Arbutus Andrachne, Acer obtusifolimn, Pistacia Terehinthus). Of shrubs as a rule several are found, 

 perhaps chiefly the C'Js^Ms-species, and the soil is generally rich in xerophilous species of herbs and grasses. 

 Just as Q. alnifolia occupies a prevalent place amongst the tree- species that grow below the pines 

 in the present pine-forests of the Troodos-mountains, it seems probable that in ancient times phies (especially 

 P. halcyensis) and partly also cedars have had a considerably vaster distribution than at present within 



I 



Fig-, 122. Shrubby Specimens of Qmrcus alnifolia, near the Summit of Silinidon Muti. 

 Cistus cretiais and Helichrysum italicum var. canum are seen. 



In the Foreground 



the areas where this oak now gives the wood its character. When Q. alnifolia has withstood the deva- 

 station of the forest so much better than the conifers mentioned, this is certainly chiefly on account of 

 its above mentioned power of vegetative reproduction. 



As an example of a region where at present Q. alnifolia by its immense distribution characterizes 

 the aspect of the wood, the surroundings of the Kykko-Couvent may be mentioned. This old convent, 

 the largest in the island, is sited in a wild mountain-tract in the western part of the Troodos-mountains, 

 surrounded for miles by barren, wooded mountain-slopes. The slopes, which at my visit in the latter days 

 of June 1905 were already dry-scorched by the sun, are in the neighbourhood of the convent almost 

 everywhere completely covered with continuous forests. On the top of the hill-ridges tlie wood is thin 

 and poor, with small knotty stems and the branches of the trees covered with different species of lichens. 

 Further down the hill-slopes the trees gradually become better-looking, without reaching, however, an 

 especially vigorous development. In the very bottom of the valleys, we find a luxuriant vegetation of such 

 trees and herbs, which usually grow in shady ravines (cp. p. 24.5, seq.). Quercus alnifolia. which in this tract 



