The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1941, Blaðsíða 7

INTRODUCTION
My visit to Iceland in 1935 was of little more than a month’s
duration (from July 5th to August 9th), but as nearly 10 days were
spent in travelling from one place to another the real working days
were comparatively few and the time available for field work was
often scant. My chief aim was the investigation of the Icelandic
Taraxaca, and consequently I was able to spend only little time in
studying the fungi.
The wet weather in July 1935, however, had provided good condi-
tions for the development of fungi, and in the latter part of July as
well as the first days of August a rich fungus flora was in fact to be
found in several places in the country. Thus on July 29th when I
visited the islet of Slúttnes in Mývatn, I observed there, under birch
and willow and in moist and mossy meadows and bogs, a great number
of larger fungi (cp. list below). On July 25th, 1937, where I visited
the islet again I found no fungi at all. This surprised me, for I was
under the impression that the weather conditions had not differed from
those in 1935. The early development of the fungus flora in 1935
showed something quite different, however, and so I made exact in-
quiries as to the temperature and precipitation in the mentioned year.
From the Icelandic periodical “Veðráttan” of 1935, and through the
Meteorological Office in Copenhagen I received the desired informa-
tion, and in Table 1 will be found the numerical values of the average
temperature and precipitation in the months of April—August 1935
and 1937 for some Icelandic stations. As the table will show, weather
conditions in 1937 were fairly normal, yet with a large amount of
rain in August. In 1935, on the other hand, there were rather marked
deviations from the normal. The month of May was particularly warm
with an average temperature of up to 4.7 degrees above normal, the
remaining months showing merely small deviations. June and July 1935
were especially rainy; thus, for the whole country, June, according to