334 Brief Survey of the Affinities aud History of the Cypriau Flora. 



In the latter part of the Pliocene epoch the land was again submerg-ed. Not only the connection 

 between Cyprus and the continent was broken, but also the island itself was divided into two separate 

 smaller isles, the whole Messaria-plain being placed under water. Not until in the course of the Quarternary 

 epoch the present proportion between sea and land has been reached, and the island has assumed its 

 present shape. 



Through finds of fos.sils in different parts of the Mediterranean area we known with certainty, 

 that the climate has successively become colder in the course of the Miocene and Pliocene epochs. In 

 the commencement of the Miocene epoch palms, cinnamon- and camphor-trees, magnolias, myrtles and 

 other ever-green flat-leaved trees were found as far north as in Central-Europe. In the Pliocene epoch 

 this plant-growth was here substituted by deciduous forest-trees belonging in great part to the same genera 

 which are still growing in Central-Europe. The northliest flnds of palm-remains from the Pliocene epoch 

 have been made in the south of France. 



After the close of the Pliocene period the cooling of the climate culminated during the Glacial 

 epoch. At the lime when the ice had reached its greatest distribution, the whole northern Europe and 

 great parts of central Europe lay hidden under a mighty ice-cover. With respect to the countries of the 

 eastern parts of the Mediterranean we cannot, however, speak of any real Glacial epoch. Although the 

 Caucasus has, for some time, been covered by ice, and even in the Lebanon, the existence of smaller 

 moraines from local glaciers has been proved, the very greatest part of the area, nevertheless, must have 

 been free of ice. That, however, the climate, at the time when Europe had its Glacial epoch, must also 

 in these countries have been colder than in the preceding and following periods, can scarcely be doubted. 



Several investigators have shown, that in the very earliest part of the Quarternary epoch, at 

 least in the main contemporarily with the Glacial epoch in Europe, there has in the Levant existed a 

 period of a far moister climate than the present one. The Pluvial epoch, as this period is generally 

 called, has in different ways left distinct traces in the Quartei-nary deposits, f. inst. in Greece, Syria, 

 Palestine, Persia, Egypt and in the Libyan desert. Best has it probably been studied in Syria and 

 Palestine. M. Blanckenhorn is of the opinion, that it is possible here to distinguish between three distinct 

 rainy periods, separated by drier ones; he holds them to be contemporary with the Gunz-, Mendel- and 

 Riss-Glacial epochs in the Alps.') The present dry climate of the Levant has, according to Blancken- 

 horn, continued unbrokenly since the very beginning of the Riss-Wurm Interglacial period. He has not 

 been able to find certain proofs of any climatic change in these countries within historic times. In a 

 very interesting treatise on the problem: "Is the Earth drying up?" J. W. Gregory appears to have 

 come to the same result.'-) 



On the background of the geological data here briefly mentioned, the historical development of 

 the Cyprian flora must be regarded. 



It seems most natural to presume that the majority of the spontaneous plants of the island have 

 immigrated during the period, about the middle of the Pliocene epoch, when the island was connected 

 with the continent in the north and the east. This earlier connection contributes to the explanation of the 

 great correspondence which exists between the flora of Cyprus and those of Syria, Asia-Minor and the 

 continent and the isles of the present Greece. Nor is it probable that the island, without the existence 

 of such an earher connection of land, would have been in possession of a flora so rich in species as 

 the flora of Cyprus has appeared to be (comp. the special list of species, pp. 24—195). The arm of sea 

 which, even at this period, south of the island reached into the interior of Syria, must be supposed to 

 have rendered the communication with North-Africa more difficult. When the flora of Cyprus has so 

 much less in common with that of North-Africa than with those of the other countries just mentioned, it 



') Max Blanckenhorn, Das Klima der ^uartarperiode in Syrieu-Paliistina uiid Ag-ypten. (Die Verand. des Klimas seit 

 ileni Maximum d. letzt. Eiszeit. Stockholm 1910). 



2) J. W. Gregory, Is the Earth drying up? (The Geographical Journal. Vol. 43. London 1914). 



