The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1945, Qupperneq 12

I. HISTORICAL SURVEY
Before I begin the description of my own observations it will be
in place to mention briefly the earlier investigations in the highland
of Iceland known to me. Possibly something may be lacking in this
survey, as I may have overlooked some source or other, notably the
various travelling reports may contain various data. I hope, however,
that no important paper has been overlooked.
Investigations of the vegetation of the Icelandic highland, as, in
fact, all investigations of the physical conditions of Iceland, are of
fairly recent date. It is natural that in a country with such poor means
of communication the lowland, the inhabited regions, should first have
been investigated by botanists.
Although the exploration journeys of E. Ólafsson and B.
P á 1 s s o n and later Sveinn Pálsson took them across dif-
ferent parts of the highland, the information supplied by them is scanty
and scattered. The most important is Sveinn Pálsson’s description of
the “flá”, which will be dealt with more fully below.
One of the first botanists to visit a considerable part of Iceland was
the Dane Chr. Grönlund, who stayed in Iceland in the sum-
mers of 1868 and 1876. The results of his investigations are to be
found in several papers and in his “Islands Flora” (Copenhagen 1881).
In several places Grönlund went into the highland, thus by the mountain
road across Tvídægra and Grímstungnaheiði as also Stóri sandur.
Localities for highland plants are given in several places in his papers,
but he makes no attempt to give a characterisation of the highland
vegetation. In one paper (1884) he mentions the distribution of the
species in relation to the altitude above the sea, and arrives at the
result, on the whole correct, that there exist “no sharp limits between
the plant species of the lowland and the highland, a large number of
the former extending to considerable altitudes and many plants of the
highland having been found in the lower regions also” (translated from