Man has wrought many changes in the steppe region. In the first place he has entered into the struggle between the woods and the steppe in opposition to the woods. The ancient Ukrainians of the Kiev state rooted out great areas of forest and reclaimed them for civilization. On the other hand, the nomad tribes, roaming the steppes ever since man can remember, repeatedly destroyed forests with fire, in order to obtain good pasture for their herds and to break down the best defense of the agricultural Ukrainian population. In the 16th Century began the deforestation of the transition zone thru the progressing colonization movement of the Ukrainians, under the protection of the Cossack organization. But even in the 18th Century there were still great forests in the transition zone, which have since entirely disappeared. The intensive colonization movement of the 19th Century put an end to them. At the same time the hand of man attacked the steppe formation. Today only very small parcels of steppe are in their original condition. The steppe grasses [108]have yielded place to an increasingly intensive cultivation of grain grasses; the place of the natural steppe has been usurped by the cultivated steppe, with its waving fields of grain and inevitable dreary stubble fields. With the progressive destruction of forests this cultivated steppe of man’s fields constantly moves toward the north and west of the Ukraine, favoring the accompanying migration of the steppe-plants and steppe animals into Central Europe. Entirely independent is the position of the Ukrainian flora in the southern slope of the Yaila and the Caucasus. They belong really to the Mediterranean Sea region. The mild climate here has matured a flora of an entirely southern type, with many evergreen trees and shrubs peculiar to the Mediterranean region. Yet the vegetation of this district can only be considered as the advance guard of the real Mediterranean vegetation, for the representatives of the northern flora by far predominate over the southern species of plants, particularly in the forests which develop in higher altitudes. Besides the just discussed plant-geographical regions and zones of the plain, the Ukraine has three mountain regions—the Carpathian, the Crimean and the Caucasian. The foot of the Carpathians is covered by mixed and leafy forests. White beech, birch, linden, aspen and pine comprise these forests. At one time the oak predominated here, as it still does on the southern slope of the mountain range. On higher ridges of the Low and High Beskid, mixed forests of beech and fir are found. At the upper tree limit of the High Beskid the beech appears almost exclusively in forest formation. The trees become constantly smaller and more gnarled, and at a height of 1000 m. we meet only beech brush. On the southern side of the mountain range pure beech woods prevail.