But this tree is eagerly
devoured by sheep, goats, and cattle, and would be destroyed in its
first stage unless protected by fencing. It will be a safe rule to adopt
the native trees as a guide to future extension, as the varieties of
such classes as are indigenous will assuredly succeed. The two existing
pines are shunned by goats even when in their earliest growth, and they
are so ineradicable that were the forests spared and allowed to remain
without artificial planting, in ten years there would be masses of young
trees too thick for the success of timber. The rain, when heavy, washes
the fallen cones from the highest points, and as they are carried by the
surface water down the steep inclines they hitch among the rocks and
take root in every favourable locality. Here we have two native trees
that will plant themselves and flourish without expense, invulnerable to
the attacks of goats, and only demanding rest and time. On the other
hand, they might be planted at regular intervals with so small an outlay
that their artificial arrangement would be advisable.
The cypress may be extended in a similar manner.
The presence of several varieties of oak would naturally suggest the
introduction of the cork-tree and the species which produces the
valonia, which forms an important article of trade, and is largely used
in England by the tanner. This cup of the acorn of the Quercus aegilops
is extremely rich in tannin, and ranges in price from 20 to 30 pounds
sterling per ton delivered in an English port. It is exported largely
from the Levant, and there can be little doubt that its introduction to
Cyprus would eventually supply a new source of revenue.
The climate and soil of the Troodos mountains would be highly favourable
to the cork-tree,* which would after thirty or forty years become
extremely valuable. The box might be introduced from the mountains of
Spain, also the Spanish chestnut, which for building purposes is
invaluable, as not only practically imperishable, but fire-proof. It is
not generally known that the wood of the Spanish chestnut is so
uninflammable that it requires the aid of other fuel to consume it by
fire; it might be used with great advantage in massive logs for upright
pillars, to support beams of similar wood in warehouses.
(*The cork oak is mentioned in some works on Cyprus as indigenous to the
island; this is a mistake. The ilex is plentiful, but not the cork-tree.)
Although the walnut cannot be classed with forest-trees indigenous to
Cyprus, it flourishes abundantly at a high elevation, ranging from about
2500 to 5000 feet above the sea. At Trooditissa monastery there are
trees that were planted by the hands of the old monk, my informant, only
twenty years ago, which are equal in size to a growth of fifty years in
England.
