APPENDIX I
NOTES ON PLANTS COLLECTED IN THE FAROES AND ICELAND
By A. W. HILL, M.A.
The decumbent character of the vegetation and the practical absence of trees form the most striking features of the flora in both the Faroes and Iceland. In the Faroes the steep and rocky hillsides are very exposed and wind swept, and the vegetation is in consequence characteristically dwarfed, and most plants raise themselves but little above the general level of the grass.
The dwarfed habit was well shown by some plants, such as Orchis maculata, which was very common on the slopes, and was only a few inches high. The inflorescences did not, as a rule, bear more than five to ten flowers, which, however, were large and pale in colour. The ovaries in many cases were not twisted, so that the labellum was consequently uppermost.
Another example of the effect of the conditions on the vegetation was afforded by the dandelion Taraxacum deus leonis, which exhibited the prostrate habit exceedingly well, for in order to protect the flowers from the wind, the flower scapes were bent over and laid parallel to the surface of the ground and the inflorescence was exposed to the light by a right-angled bend of the scape just below the head of the flowers. The inflorescence was by this means protected from the wind by being kept just below the general level of the vegetation.
Cardamine pratensis was also influenced in a similar way on the lower slopes, but at higher altitudes plants were found bearing single radical flowers on short stalks instead of the usual raceme.
We proceeded to Akureyri in the north of Iceland by way of the east coast, and it was interesting to notice the difference in the condition of the vegetation on the northern and eastern shores of the island. On the east coast, at Seythis-and Vopnafjords, the plants were stunted and for the most part only in bud; but in the north, at Husavik and Akureyri, similar plants were much earlier, and were not only in full flower, but were also much less stunted, and showed a more robust growth than those found on the eastern side. For example, Plantanthera hyperborea, which was in tight bud on the east coast, and also Thymus and other plants, were in full flower at Husavik.
Thalictrum alpinum, which grows abundantly all over the hillsides, was found to be attacked by the æcidial stage of one of the rust fungi, Puccinia septentrionalis;[1] and at Seythisfjord, where it was especially noticed, it was found that only the topmost leaflets were affected, that is to say, only those leaflets which protruded above the general level of the vegetation, and which were in consequence infected by wind-blown spores. At Seythisfjord the leaflets were only slightly attacked, the fungus being in a young state; but at Husavik it was much more advanced, and the hypertrophied purple tissues were very conspicuous. The effect often extended some way down the petioles.