The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1930, Page 90

80
H. M0LMOLM HANSEN
C. LÆKJAMÓT (THE NORTH COUNTRY).
With the farm Lækjamót as my starting point I had an op-
portunity of studying the vegetation in a valley in North Iceland
for some days in the middle of August 1925. The principal types
of vegetation are the same here as in the south country, viz. melar,
mo, and mýri. The following applies to their distribution. Up the
sides of the valley, at the top only the melar vegetation is met
with, lower down there occurs a belt in which the mo prevails with
spots of melar, but devoid of mýri, and at the foot there is a belt
where the mýri vegetation is dominant and where mo and melar are
only found over small areas. In the bottom of the valley the
depressions are occupied by the mýri vegetation, the more elevated
areas by melar and mo. Along the banks of the rivers the vegetation
consists mainly of jaðar. Retween the vegetation of the valley sides
and tliat of the valley bottom there is the essential diíference that
the mýri vegetation of the valley sides consists exclusively of halla
mýri (well mýri), while in the valley bottom it consist exclusively
of fórmýri (swampy mýri). On the boundary line between mo and
mjH-i, flag mo was met with, both on the valley floor and on the
sides of the valley.
Such is the appearance of a transverse section of a vally in
North Iceland. Unfortunately time did not permit me to investigate
a longitudinal section. What I have seen fragmentarily would seem
to show that at any rate the floor of the valley exhibits typical and
interesting dilferences, especially as regards the mýri vegetation. At
the head of the vallej', where there was no level bottom, the halla
mýri (including the dý vegetation) extended right down to the river.
This was the case at Aðalbol in the Austerádalur. Further out,
as at Lækjamót in the Viðidalur, halla mýri is only found on the
mountain slopes, while the level bottom of the valley is covered
with the fórmýri (including the flói vegetation). Still further out
the fórmýri seems to have been replaced by the fétmýri, the Carex
cryptocarpa mýri (including the fen vegetation, the Equisetum
limosum swamp). This at any rate was the case at the mouth
of the Vatnsdalur.
Tables 19 A and 20 A show the circling results for melar, mo,
and mýri in the neighbourhood of Lækjamót. The circling results
for the tlag mo are given in table 17 A together with the flag ve-
getation from the south country.