82 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



The greater number of the Grecian islands have been examined by 

 a botanist of the distinguished merit of Tournefort. Cyprus, from its 

 situation and its size, gives us reason to expect a peculiarity as well 

 as a variety in its vegetables ; and it is with surprise that we find an 

 island so interesting in its natural productions has been little exa- 

 mined. Hasselquist visited it on his return from Egypt, at a season 

 of the year when its annual plants, which form the greater number of 

 its vegetables, were burnt up by the summer sun ; and Pococke, a 

 better antiquary than botanist, has given us only a scanty account of 

 some of them. A view of its Flora, and comparison of the modern 

 and popular uses of the plants with those of ancient Greece, gave me 

 hopes in an island so near to Caramania, the native country of Diosco- 

 rides, of ascertaining several of the more obscure plants of this author. 

 My expectations have in some measure succeeded ; the modern 

 names, though greatly corrupted, still retain sufficient resemblance 

 to those of ancient Greece, to enable us to determine many plants 

 with certainty ; and the superstitious and popular uses of many still 

 remain the same. My inquiries were frequent among the Greek 

 peasants, and the different priests whom we met. From the physi- 

 cian of Larnica I collected some information relative to their medi- 

 cal uses. 



I crossed the island in different directions. Cyprus, though pos- 

 sessing several of the Egyptian and Syrian plants, yet, from the 

 scarcity of water, the great heat of the sun, and the thin surface 

 which covers the upper regions of the mountains, can scarcely be 

 considered as rich in plants ; and when compared with Crete must 

 appear even poor : the sides of whose mountains, those, for in- 

 stance, of Ida and Sphakia, are watered with streams supplied from 

 the perpetual snows that crown their summits. Notwithstanding the 

 character of woody given to it by Strabo, when measured by a north- 

 ern eye, accustomed to the extensive woods of oak and beech that we 

 find in some parts of England, or the sombre pine-forests of Switzer- 

 land, Cyprus appears to have little claim to the appellation of woody. 

 The higher regions of Troados are covered with the Pinus Pinea ; this, 



