Rit (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.06.1975, Page 99

it is dominant. But as I chose to classify sociations, or rather as-
sociations in topographical terms, it was ohviously necessary to
separate the C. Bigelowii mýri from the dry-ground sociations in
which it is a dominant species. These can be shrubwood heath,
Grimmia heath or snow-patch, but in all these formations C. Bige-
lowii often appears as a character species. Those C. Bigelowii so-
ciations are closely related to the heath sociations in Scandinavia
which have been described by Nordhagen (1943 p. 250 ff.) and
others. I do not propose to deal with these sociations here, although
I must admit that in many cases they cannot be clearly distingu-
ished from the C. Bigelowii mýri.
Although C. Bigelowii sociations occur mostly on the Scandi-
navian heaths there are authorities who have described C. Bigelowii
mires in Scandinavia which are all somewhat related to the as-
sociation dealt with here — with the exception of C. Bigelowii —
C. rariflora sociation 55 where the relationship is minimal. Thus
the Calliergon sarmentosum-reiche C. Bigelowii sociation in Sylene
(Nordhagen 1928 p. 392) appears to be related to C. Bigelowii —
Salix herbacea sociation 57, but the C. rigida-Calliergon sarmen-
tosmn Braun moor on Fishcherhalbinsel promontory is even more
closely related, and the same applies to other “Vegetationsaufnah-
men” in Kalela’s paper (1939 p. 48A-486).
The C. rigida moor in Petsamo (Söyrinki 1938-39 p. 50) and
the C. rigida Niedermoor in Northem Sweden are also closely
related sociations. (Fries 1913 p. 134.)
Furthermore “Græsrik og lyngrik Sphagnum myr” (grassy and
heather grown Sphagnum mire) which H. Resvoll Holmsen des-
cribes from Jötunheimen are closely related vegetation forms.
As far as I have been able to determine from Scandinavian bota-
nical publications the C. Bigelowii mire is everywhere insignifi-
cant in those countries, and it is neither comparable to the Ice-
landic C. Bigelowii mýri as regards distribution nor significance
m the vegetation. The Icelandic C. Bigelowii mýri is, as already
stated, a very widely distributed formation throughout the less
elevated highland areas.
I have here been discussing six sociations which I have com-
bined into one association, but the justification for this might be
disputed. In my paper (1945) I combined the sociations which I
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