Greinar (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.01.1967, Síða 54

50
it there are small level spaces or hollows. Dry meadow
land predominates on the island, with a puffin colony on
the seaward slopes.
The dominant species of the meadow land of Ellidaey
was Agrostis tenuis, average 62%, with associated species
Festuca rubra 26% and Poa pratensis 12% (Table IV,
Ellidaey 1 and 2). Stellaria media was also present, though
it did not occur in the measurements. In the puffin co-
lony the dominant species was Festuca rúbra 74%, with
associated species Stellaria media 19.5% and Poa praten-
sis 5%. Bare patches were 1.5% (Table IV, Ellidaey 3
and 5). In the measurement Ellidaey 4, which was taken
up on the crater rim, on the outskirts of a puffin colony,
Poa pratensis was the dominant species with 45% cove-
rage. The major associated species were Stellaria media
30%, Festuca rubra 15% and Agrostis tenuis 7.5%. We
are concerned here with a marginal strip between puffin
colony and dry meadow land proper which occurs fre-
quently. The Agrostis does not grow in the puffin colony,
but according to the Raunkiaer frequency-measurement
the Poa appears even more prevalent here than the point-
measurement indicates (Table V, Ellidaey 2 and 3). On
Ellidaey only 23 species of vascular plants have been found,
which is a rather low number in relation to the size of
the island (Table II). No moist spots occur on this island,
and this excludes some species that grow on other islands
where such conditions occur. Ellidaey is the only one of
the outer islands still used for grazing sheep, though most
of the islands having enough vegetation were formerly
used for this purpose.
B jarnarey
Bjarnarey is the second largest of the outer islands, ex-
cluding Surtsey, or nearly 0.32 sq. km, and is the highest,
about 164 metres, surrounded by cliffs on all sides except
the northeast, where landing is easiest. In the centre of
the island there is a grass-grown crater with a bowl-shap-
ed depression at its summit. Round it there is some level