The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1930, Síða 23

II. CLIMATE AND FLORA.
The above-described rather rigorous climate in connection with
the homogeneous soil, consisting of basaltic rocks and their
weathering products, is no doubt in great part, and perhaps even
more than the isolated position oí' the island, responsible for the
paucity of species apparent in the phanerogams. Thus the most
recent treatment of the Icelandic flora, St. Stefánsson’s “Flóra ís-
lands”, 2. ed. 1924, gives a total of only 375 phanerogams and vas-
cular cryptogams (the number of species of Taraxacum and Hiera-
cium is, however, taken from the lst edition of the Flora, 1901).
The floristic peculiarities are here disregarded. They have pre-
viously been treated by Gronlund and Warming. Some bio-
logical facts are of greater interest in this connection.
In »Flóra íslands« the country is divided into 5 areas, viz. the
East Country or the land between the Langanes Mountains and
Hornafjörður; the North Country between tlie Langanes Mountains
and Hrútafjörður; the North West Country or Vestfirðir; the South
West Country between Gilsfjörður and the Reykjanes Mountains,
and finally the South Country between the Reykjanes Mountains
and HornaQörður. The distribution of each species in each of the
aforementioned 5 areas is given in the Flora. By determining the
life form of eaeh species and calculating the percentage of the va-
rious life forms in the total number of phanerogams we arrive at
the biological spectra given in table 3, p. 17, partljr for the whole
country partly for each of the 5 areas. Of greatest interest are the
chamaephytes, the chamaephyte percentage for the wliole country
being 15.2; hence, as sliown by Raunkiær in 1908, Iceland belongs
to the suharctic hemicryptophyte-chamaephyte area. For the resl
there is a striking, even though slight, difference in the content of
chamaephytes in each of the 5 areas. The South Country has a
chamaephyte percentage of 15.1, the Soulh West Country has 15.2,