File:Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory, vol. 9 (1892) (20661691946).jpg

Title: Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory, vol. 9
Identifier: contributionsfro09univ (find matches)
Year: 1892 (1890s)
Authors: University of Pennsylvania. Botanical Laboratory
Subjects: Botany; Botany
Publisher: Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press
Contributing Library: Penn State University
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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to U > o «0 O PL, u > CO a C/5 ^ (D 2 o EIFRIZ—Sketches of the Vegetation of some Southern Provinces of Soviet Russia : I, Altitudinal Distribution in the Crimean Mountains Vegetation of some Soiithern Provinces of Soviet Russia 366 hopes to replace France in the production of Muscat owing chiefly to the destructive work of Phylloxera vastatrix in the latter country. One article of food commonly sold along the southern coast, but grown in north Crimea, is of interest to Americans as a contribution of their continent to Europe; it is *'corn on the cob." Children peddle it cooked, ready for eating. Still another plant which is widely grown is the sunflower; the seeds are eaten, though chiefly used for extracting an oil which constitutes the main cooking and table oil of Russia. Zone II. The Pinus laricio belt (300-800 m.). The Crimean pine, Pinus laricio var. pallasiana, forms a belt on the southern slope of the Crimean mountains at an average altitude of about 500 m. The association is a nearly pure one (PL XIV, Phot. 1). This pine rarely gets as low as the seashore nor as high as the plateau. The forest floor of the Pinus laricio association harbours little vegetation except for small patches of Dryopteris filix-mas, one of the few Crimean ferns. In open areas an occasional Pirus elaeagnifolia and P. communis are found. It is here that the oldest of the wild pear trees occurs, estimated to be over 200 years. Ruscus aculeatus grows in the more open areas of the woods. On the edges of the forest above the village of Gursuf one may find Saxifraga irrigua. Other herbaceous species occur in this zone, but they are more typical of the adjoining higher region. The second zone is essentially a pure stand of the indigenous Crimean pine which has received the name P. taurica, though it is perhaps better called by its older name. (Tauria is an ancient name for Crimea.) Many of the pine trees attain very good size and constitute the monarchs of the native flora on the south coast (PI. XIV, Phot. 2). Zone III. The upper herbaceous region (800-1000 m.). The third zone possesses the two characteristics necessary to form a good herbaceous undergrowth, open woods and ample moisture. This latter con- dition is maintained by abundant and hard rains, close-hanging clouds, and an absence of desiccating winds. (We recall that the annual rainfall at Nikita Gardens, at sea-level, is 50 cm., while on the Yaila plateau, at 1500 m., it is 120 cm.) Several new trees appear above 800 m.; most of the lower altitude ones remain. Two of these new members characterise the arboreal vegetation of the third zone; they are Pinus silvestris and Fagus taurica. The former, the most widespread European pine, is here intermixed with P. laricio var. pallasiana (P. taurica) from the second zone. In addition to these two species of pine, a third occurs elsewhere on the south coast of the Crimea, Pinus pithyusa var. stanhevici, a close relative of the Caucasian P. pithyusa. Face ^.366

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