The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1914, Page 139

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
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Ostenfeld also describes the vegetation near the boiling mud-pools,
and writes: “Close to the mud-pools the ground is quite bare, and
not until some distance from them do plants begin to appear; nearest
to thern occurred Agrostis cilba forming a net-work with its long rhi-
zornes, and beyond this came a dense, low carpet of Sagina procum-
bens, Cerastium vulgatum, Plantago major (dwarf-form), Stellaria media
and a great abundance of Grimmia hypnoides; somewhat further off
many other plants occurred.” “The vegetation near the outlet of
the large mud-pool Gunna was characteristic and peculiar; here the
dainp ground (about 30°C.) was covered by a pure, green carpet of
Nardia crenulata in which only one other plant occurred, viz. Jun-
cus bufonius; within there was tirm soil the particles of which were
held togetlier by moss-protonema. The moss-carpet became brownish-
red where the ground was drier, but it was only Nardia wliich
changed colour; some mosses occurred, however, along the ouler
edge..............., but only as a subordinate component” (loc, cit.
pp. 239, 240). Near numerous solfataras in the neighbourhood of
Myvatn, on Odádahraun, Kerlingarfjöll, Torfajökull, and in several
other places no vestige of plant-life occurs.
Vegelation on Wet Soil (bogs, pools, swamps and wet mea-
dows). Bog- and swamp-land (myrar) is very extensively distributed
in Iceland, both on the plateau and in the lowlands and valleys;
these tracts are also of great economic importance, as in the inlia-
bited districts the grass is cut for hay, and the hay (úthey) is used
as winter-fodder for sheep and ponies. In Iceland the swampy
meadow-tracts are divided according to their water-content into two
main divisions, myri (pl. myrar) and flói (pl. flóar); the soil of the
former is firm and tough owing to the interwoven roots and rhizomes;
in the latter the soil is rotten, and more loosely connected, so that
cattle thrust their legs through it and easily get stuck fast; in the
former the surface is saturated with the ground water, but in the
latter the water reaches to the surface or slightly above it, conse-
quently liere pools of all sizes abound. Upon the flat surface of the
“myrar” small cone-shaped knolls usually occur, and in “flóar” water-
channels and swampy holes are often found between the knolls.
The vegetation is far denser and more continuous in the former
than in the latter. The dominant species in the swampv “flói” are
Carex chordorrhiza, Eriophorum angustifolium and Scirpus cœspitosus,
and frequently occurring species are Carex rostrata, C. saxatitis, C.
Goodenoughii, C. limosa, C. rariflora and several other Carices, as also