282 PROF. C. C. BABTXGTON ON THE PLOKi OF ICELAND. 



A Envision o^ the Flora of Iceland. By Chatiles Caudale 

 Babingt^, M.A., r.K & L.SS., Professor of Botany in the 

 University of Cambridge. 



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[Read January 20, 1870.] 



The following paper relates to the Phanerogamic flora of the 

 large island of Iceland, which is situated in the Northern Ocean, at 

 about 600 miles to the west of Norway, about as far to the north of 

 Scotland, and not more than 60 miles from the ice-bound coast of 

 Greenland. In size it is somewhat larger than Ireland, containing 

 about 40,000 square miles. One of its two northern capes extends 

 slightly to the north of the Arctic Circle ; and the other very 

 nearly approaches that latitude. The extreme length from east 

 to west is about 180 miles, and breadth from north to south 

 somewhat more than 100 miles. It is wholly of volcanic struc- 

 ture ; and the surface consists of beds of ancient and modern 

 lava, basaltic rock, very extensive morasses, numerous lakes, and 

 large tracts consisting of volcanic sand. Much also of the 

 country is occupied by mountains, many of which rise to the 

 height of 6000 feet, and are covered through fully their upper 

 half with perpetual ice and snow, from whence extensive glaciers 

 descend almost to the level of the sea. Notwithstanding its 

 northern situation, the climate of the country is rendered com- 

 paratively mild by the action of the Gulf Stream, which washes 

 the coast, and often, as I am informed by Prof, A. Newton, 

 deposits "West-Indian productions on the western shore. _The 

 presence of this warm current also causes the rain-fall to be 

 very great, and the summer sky to be often covered with clouds. 

 There is therefore a deficiency of that direct sunlight which is 

 required by many plants for their perfect development ; and its 

 absence is probably the cause of no forests like those of Norway 

 existing now, or apparently at any previous date — also of the 

 climate being unfit for the growth of grain and of most of the 

 products of gardens, which are found even in Norway, 



It seems probable that at an early period, even since the 

 island was settled by the Northmen in A.n. 874, there were 

 many more trees than are now to be found ; but of this there 

 is no certainty, and it may be considered quite certain that 

 no forests of Pine-trees ever existed. AVhat the inhabitants 



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call '* forests " may now be found — the wood at Thingvellir for 

 instance ; but they are only tracts covered with low bushes oi 



