The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1914, Page 127

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
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Thjórsá, Skaftá and Mýrdalsjökull which are desert-like in character,
and here there are also several bare tufl-ridges with numerous peaks.
The sand is constantly drifting through the valleys and destroying
all vegetation; only upon the highest ridges and peaks, which cannot
be reached by the coarser grains of the drifting sand are seen se-
veral yellowish-green patches of mosses, and also along streams and
around springs the inoss-vegetation is sometimes fairly luxuriant and
forms rather large grcen palches in places where very few or no
phanerogams have been able to gain a foothold. Around Tjaldvatn
(588 metres) in Veidivötn there is a considerable vegetation of differ-
ent species; in 1889 I collected here the following plants: Carex ri-
gida, Poa pratensis, Festuca ovina, Salix glaifca, Montia rivularis,
Ranunculus acer, Batrachium paucistamineum, Thalictrum alpinum,
Koenigia islandica, Empetrum nigrum, Rhodiola rosea, Parnassia pa-
lustris, Chamœnerium latifolium, Hippuris vulgaris, Euphrasia latifolia.
Near Thorisvatn (591 metres) which is situated in the centre of
large sandy deserts quite bare of vegetation, I found only Salix
glauca, Chamœnerium latifolium and Carex rariflora. On Blesamyri
(535 metres) near Tindfjallajökull I found Carex rigida and C. rari-
ftora. Near Hitalaug (650 metres) east of Torfajökull, in the neigh-
bourhood of hot springs I found Coeloglossum viride, Saxifraga stel-
laris, Sibbaldia procumbens, Pirola minor, Vaccínium uliginosum, Ve-
ronica alpina, Gnaphalium Norvegicum, G. supinum, Hieracium alpi-
num. Near Hvannabotnar (434 metres) in the neighbourhood of
Skaftá I collected: — Equisetum palustre, Luzula campestris, Carex ri-
gida, Calamagrostis stricta f. borealis, Anthoxanthum odoratum, Sib-
baldia procumbens, Epilobium lactiflorum, E. Hornemanni, Gnapha-
lium Norvegicum. Though the above list is naturally very inconiplete
owing to the author having had other work in hand (geographical
survey and geological investigations) which left him no time for tho-
rough botanical investigations or collections, yet these notes have
been included here as these parts of the plateau are very difíicult
of access and are hardly ever visited by naturalists.
Outside the deserts in central Iceland, and nearer to the sea,
there are also many, large and small, high-situated rocky areas and
broken groups of rocks, pieces of plateau, and isolated peaks in the
numerous mountain-spurs which extend between the branching val-
leys and fjords. The vegetation of these rocks is also very little
known, but it resembles very much that of the plateau, only, it is
usually richer in species. Highest up on the mountains, at an alti-