The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1930, Side 11

PREFACE.
Among the results achieved by Danish botanical research, two espe-
. eially aroused my liveliest interest, viz. W. Johan nsen’s demon-
stration of the fixity of the genotype (“the genotype of homo-
zygotic organisms is normally just as “fixed in type” as e. g. chemical
composition” (Arvelighed 1918, p. 102)), and C. Raunkiær’s demon-
stration of the distribution of the life-forms within the va-
rious climatic zones (“even the most widely separated regions with
entirely different floras in a íloristic respect but with essentially the
same climatic conditions for plant life show in the main the same bio-
logical spectrum” (Livsformernes Statistik som Grundlag for biologisk
Plantegeograli. 1908, pp. 68—69).
From these two facts I, as an impartial observer, drew the con-
clusion that in Nature the development of forms as sketched in
“Livsform og Alder” (Bot. Tidsskr. 40: 193—203, 1928) must in the
last instance be regarded as a physico-chemical process, the
simplest manifestation of which is to be found in the trans-
formation of a chemical combination, such as e. g. that of
HoO from vapour through water to ice (the gaseous, liquid,
and solid phases respectively) during progressively decrea-
sing temperature. In this way the species should be chemi-
cal combinations whose phases are their life forms.
Tliis, however, is merely a theory, the correctness of which is
primarily determined by its fruitfulness as a scientiíic working hypo-
thesis. Hence it was expedient to collect further material to illustrate
the relation between i'orm and environment. As assistant to Professor
Raunkiær in his investigation of the preserved heath at Norholm (in
the summers of 1921—1924) I was fortunate enough to become ac-
quainted with the zone formation around collections of water, to which
the attention of botanists had already been drawn in “Vesterhavets 0st-
og Sydkysts Vegelation” (Raunkiær 1889). At Norholm Heath I was
able to collect material to elucidate the amount of individual species
and life-forms in the various zones of moisture, and thanks to financial
Thc Hotany of lceland. Vol. III.
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