- 14 - Phytolacca americana. One often sees relicts of the forest flora - Cardamine pectinata, Pteris cretica and others. The same is true of the adjoining hilly part of the gorge. From the village of Chakhati we begin ascending the slopes of the mountains on narrow paths. The lower part of the eastern slope of nearby Mt. Satsiravi is occupied by a secondary alder forest, by fragments of a much modified mixed forest, and by cul- tivated plants where one can often find such adventive or escaped plants as Robinia pseudoacacia, Paulownia tomentosa, Miscanthus sinensis, Microstegium imberbis, M. japonicum, Phytolacca america- na, Erigeron canadensis, Gnaphalium affine, and Crassocephalum crepidioides. Mixed forest has been preserved in the upper part of the mountain slope from 600 m to 1200 m. It is characterized by a vigorous development of the broad-leaved tree overstorey with Fagus orientalis, Castanea sativa, and Tilia caucasica; by a dense undergrowth composed of evergreen species of arboreal Rhq- dodendron ponticum, R. ungernii, Laurocerasus officinalis, Ilex imeretica, Hedera colchica; by luxuriant growth of deciduous lia- nas - Smilax excelsa, Clematis vitabla, and Periploca graeca; and by stands of ferns. Your attention may be drawn to the continual flowering and fruiting of many species of herbaceous plants, a biological fea- ture that appeared under conditions of a warm, damp climate. In the Tertiary period, evergreen trees were dominant in this area but many species died out because of the lower temperatures that began in the Neogene; the evergreen species have remained only in the understorey, whereas the deciduous species are the only trees to be met with in the overstorey: Fagus orientalis, Castanea sa- tiva, and Carpinus caucasica. The Tertiary relics are a signifi- cant part nowadays too of the present-day vegetation the Colchis. Castanea sativa, Fagus orientalis, Carpinus caucasica, Quer- cus hartwissiana, the basic forest-forming trees, produce differ- dent variants of mixed communities due to the ruggid relief of the mountain: hornbeam-beech, chestnut-oak, chestnut-hornbeam- beech forests. Some minor arborescent species, such as Tilia cau- casica, Alnus barbata, Ulmus scabra, Acer laetum, which are usu- ally of secondary importance in the composition of tree stands,in