Scaligeria crética (Miller) Bois, in the Plant Cover of the Croatian Litoral

When he was doing research in the vegetation of stony meadows in the area of middle Dalmatian islands, the author had an opportunity to get to know closer as regards its phytocoenologic relations and geographical distribution, a comparatively rare plant from the family of Umbeliferae which is known in botanical literature under the name of Scaligeria crética (Miller) Boiss. On the territory of the Croatian Littoral and Yugoslavia in general this plant has up to now been known only from the island of Hvar (Visiani 1852:70) and a little island of Sv. Andrija (Ginzberger 1921:241). On the ground of the said Visiani’s information it is quoted later by Boissier (1872:875) generally for Dalmatian islands and by Beck (1901:429) for the island of Hvar and on the ground of all the information Hayek (1927:1069) quotes it for Dalmatia and in the most recent time also Tut in (1968: 328) for the flora of Yugoslavia within the flora of Europe. Our recent studies, however, have shown that this plant on the territory of the Croatian Littoral spreads over a little wider area, what the author reports in this paper. Here the author first refers to the previous diagnoses and descriptions of the plant as well as to its general distribution. In the first Chapter of the paper the author quotes word by word a part of Visiani’s description of the species Scaligeria crética, and also his critical consideration on the earlier descriptions of the same plant which were published byde Candolle and Boissier, and which partly do not comply with the author’s statements. However, the quoted statements of Visiani have remained unnoticed, i. e. not accepted and therefore in the more recent and even in the latest floristic literature we come across descriptions, especially as regards the structure of the flower and fruit, which do not comply with these statements. Thus Hayek (1927:1069) in the diagnosis of the genus Scaligeria, which refers only to the species of S. crética, writes, among the others, about the obsolete calix (»calyx obsoletus«) and about valeculs of the mericarp with 2-3 vitae (».. . valleculis 2-3 - vittatis«). In the most recent time, also Tutin (1968:328) mentions in the diagnosis of the genus Scaligeria, which also refers only to the species S. crética, the absence of calyx in the flower (»Sepals absent«) and valeculs of the mericarp with 2-3 vitae (»... vittae 2-3«). This incongruity of statements from the latest literature with descriptions and notes by Visiani made the author do some more necessary research on plants which he knows from different finding from places the territory of the Croatian Littoral. This research has proved Visiani’s statements completely correct. Thus the flower of the species Scaligeria cretica has a clearly developed calyx (fig. 1), the structure of the fruit also corresponds to the description of Visiani. In the pericarp of a mericarp three kinds of resin canals can be distinguished (vittae, fig. 2) and they are »vittae vallecullares« (one under each val- leculae), »vittae commissurales« (developed on the commissural side of the mericarp) and »vittae intrajugales« (1—2 small and narrow ones under each main ridge; seldom completely obsolete). In the second chapter there is a short description of the general distribution of the species Scaligeria cretica on the ground of the data from the floristic literature the author could get. The plant spreads in the mediterranean seaside areas of Palestine, Lebanon and Turkey in western Asia, and Greece (here is the centre of its distribution) Albania and Yugoslavia on the territory of the mediterranean part of the Balkan peninsula. In the third Chapter the distribution of the plant on the territory of the Croatian Littoral i. e. Yugoslavia is shown. Here, as already mentioned, this plant has been known so far only from the island of Hvar and the small island of Sv. Andrija, and the author has also found it on various localities of the island of Vis, while on the territory of Mo- lunat and in Konavli near Dubrovnik it was collected by Rajevski. All the finding places of the plant known to the author so far are shown in the enclosed map (fig. 3). The quoted territories of the Croatian Littoral in Yugoslavia can be marked as the farthest western boundary line of the distribution area of the Scaligeria cretica species. In accordance with this is the fact that this plant on this territory is strictly characteristic for one special association of stony meadows named by the author as Thero-Brachypodietum adriaticum. This association is now known only in the central district of the middle part of the eumediterranean zone of the eastern Adriatic phitogeographical province