The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1914, Page 158

342
THOIIODDSEN
are the most important: Hallormstadaskógur near Lagarfljót in East
Iceland, Bæjarstadaskógur below Jökulfell in 0ræfi in South Ice-
land, and Thórdarstadaskógur and Hálsskógur in Fnjóskadal in North
Iceland. In Hallormstadaskógur some erect birch trees have a height
of 8—9 metres and a circumference of 70—80 cm., and many others
have a height of 5—7 metres. In Thórdarstadaskógur the highest
tree is 8V2 metres high, with a circumference of 32 cm.; several of
the trees are 6—7 metres high, and the average height of the whole
wood is 3—4 metres. Hálsskógur is somewhat lower; some of the
trees are, however, 6—7 metres high, and several 4—5 metres1.
Bæjarstadaskógur is somewhat lower, but the trees are well-grown
and erect, and stunted birches are absent; the average height of the
birch trees is 4—5 metres and may often be as much as 6 metres2 3 * * * *.
In a ravine near Skaftafell I measured in 1894 a birch tree which
was 7 metres high and a mountain ash which had a height of 9x/2
metres. This tree occurs sometimes dispersed in birch coppices,
and sometimes separately in ravines and on mountain slopes; it has
often been allowed to stand on account of some superstition. In soine
places in North and South Iceland the mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia)
has been planted around fannsteads and by houses in towns. It at-
tains a height of 7—10 metres, but in birch coppices it is gene-
rally only 4—5 metres, or even less. In birch coppices are also
found Betula nana, Salix phylicifolia, S. lanata and S. ylauca and
Juniperus communis. The soil in coppice-woods consists often of
“moar” — knolly clay which rests sometimes 011 gravel and some-
times upon rock. Coppices often occur also on a stony bottom, as
in ravines, between rocky boulders, and often upon mountain slopes
— occasionally they are found on boggy soii. The wood-floor is
very often occupied by heather moor; and birch coppices of lower
growth often even pass into heather moor; in the latter case the
same species are found in the woods as are found on ordinary
heather inoors, and they form similar associations8.
1 S. Sigurdsson: Skógarnir i Fnjóskadal (Andvari, XXV, 1900, pp. 144-175).
2 H. Jónsson, 1905, pp. 46—50. Th. Thoroddsen in Geografisk Tidsskrift,
XIII, 1895, pp. 16—17.
3 During latter years many papers have been written on the woods of Ice-
land. One of the most important is that by C. V. Prytz: Skovdyrkning paa Island
in 'l'idsskrift for Skovvæsen, vol. XVII, 1905, pp. 20—89; it also contains interesting
notes on the Icelandic soil. Moreover, works dealing with the woods of Iceland
are enumerated in Lysing Islands, vol. 2, on pp. 443—445.