The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1942, Blaðsíða 11

THE PTERIDOPHYTA AND SPERMATOPHYTA OF ICELAND
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list from memory, and in such cases it has not always been possible to
corroborate the finds.
Sir George Steuart Mackenzie also published a book on his journey
in Iceland during the summer of the year 1810. His book “Travels in
the Island of Iceland”, London 1811, contains a plant-list written by
W. J. Hooker. This list is principally taken from Zoega’s “Flora Is-
landica” in Ólafsson’s and Pálsson’s account of Iceland and Mohr’s
“Forsog til en Islandsk Naturhistorie”, see above. Some additional
species are inserted, derived from Sir George Mackenzie’s and District
Physician Sveinn Pálsson’s collections and Sir W. J. Hooker’s own
researches.
In the year 1820 two Danes, Count Raben and the bryologist Axel
Moller Morch travelled in Iceland. Morch’s Collection of plants kept
in the Botanical Museum in Copenhagen contains several species of
Phanerogams new for Iceland. Morch himself has not published his
finds, but in Theodor Gliemann’s “Geographische Beschreibung von
Island”, Altona 1824, there is a list of Icelandic plants; it is a very
comprehensive enumeration, but it contains many repetitions and
positive errors, and on the whole it is rather unreliable. It is based
mainly on König’s and Mohr’s lists, but Morch is again and again
cited as the authority for recorded species.
The first Excursion Flora of Iceland was published by the Icelandic
District Surgeon Oddur Hjaltalín. His book ‘Tslenzk Grasafræði” was
published in 1830. Besides an introduction to Botany, containing a
Terminology and a survey of the Linnean System, there are also instruc-
tions for the collection and preparation of plants, and a chapter dealing
with the usefulness of herbs. In the special section the species are shortly
described, their duration and time of flowering being stated. About the
habitats of the plants there is very little. In his preface Hjaltalín states
that he has made use of Hornemann’s “Dansk oekonomisk Plantelære”
as far as possible; in addition he has used Wahlenberg’s “Flora Lap-
ponica”, Liljeblad’s “Svensk Flora”, and Zoega’s “Flora Islandica” in
Eggert Ólafsson’s narrative, see above, and some other papers on
the Icelandic Flora. Hjaltalín himself was not a botanist, and conse-
quently his book has its weak points, especially in the descriptions, which
in many cases are taken from Hornemann’s work on the Danish Flora.
In Hjaltalín’s book 352 Flowering plants and 27 Vascular Cryptogams,
and besides these 194 species of lower cryptogams are mentioned.
In the years 1835—36 the French Government sent the corvette
“La Recherche” to Greenland and Iceland, and the scientific results of