Floristik und Systematik, der Phanerogamen. 235 



Volkens, G., Die Flora der Marshallinseln. (Notizbl. 

 bot. Garten und Museum Berlin. No. 32. 1903. p. 83—91.) 



Nach Aufzeichnungen des Regierungsarztes Dr. Schnee und 

 anderen Quellen stellt Verf. die Liste der von den M a rsh a 1 1- und Gilbert- 

 Inseln bekannten Gewächse zusammen. Die Flora ist ausserordentlich 

 arm (Phanerogame inclusive der reichlichen eingeführten Arten); im 

 Ganzen nur 126 Species. Carl Mez. 



Wagner, A.. Prunus sermlata grandiflora u n d Prunus Mume 

 var. alba plena. (Gartenfiora. fahrte 52. 1903. p. 169. 

 Taiel 1513.) 



Der Verf. berichtet kurz über japanische Kirsch- (P. sermlata und 

 P. Pseudocerasus) und Pflaumenbäume (P. Mume); als Beispiel für die 

 Schönheit derselben giebt er Abbildungen für zwei von ihm selbst 

 cultivirte Varietäten, nämlich P. sermlata grandiflora Wagn., ausge- 

 zeichnet durch besonders grosse, grünlich weisse Blüthen, und P. Maine 

 var. alba plena Wagn. mit zart rosa Knospen und rein weissen Blüthen 

 von silberartigem Glanz. \\ angerin. 



Warming, EUG., The history o f the flora of theFaeröes. 

 (Botany of the Faeröes. II. p. 660— 681. Copenhagen 1903.) 



Having resumed the main geographical results of all preceding 

 papers of the above work as far as they deal with the land-flora of the 

 Faeröes, the author asserts that the flora is temperate euro- 

 pean and atlantic, closely allied to that of Great Britain, 

 with a touch of arctic viz. on the higher mountains and 

 moreparticularly on the Nordreöer. As regards the marine 

 plankton the condition however is quite different: the islands are almost 

 constantly surrounded by the waters of the Gulf Stream and consequently 

 arctic iorms are wanting. The flora must have immigrated chiefly, per- 

 haps entirely.irom Western Europe and especially from Great Britain. 

 Seen from a geological point of vievv, the flora is young having no en- 

 demic species of ^ascular plants, except the Hieracia, which as yet are 

 only known from here. Thus the Faeröes form a strong contrast to 

 other atlantic islands; this can only be accounted for by the fact that 

 during the glacial period, according to Heiland and Geikie, they 

 were propably totally covered with ice. 



The question : how did the flora immigrate, was discussed in two 

 preceeding papers of the same work by Ostenfeld and Borge sen. 

 Ostenfeld supposed an immigration across Iand by means of a post- 

 glacial land-connection, while B ö rg e s e n maintained that the flora might 

 have migrated across the sea bv the agency of wind, birds and ocean- 

 currents (see also „Bot. Gentralbl. LXXXVIH. p. 38S and 226.). 



The assumption of a land-bricge between Scotland and Green- 

 land is supported by the submarine ridges connecting Shetland, 

 Faeröes, Iceland and Greenland, by the geological conformity of 

 the rocks of these islands and the east coast of Greenland and recently 

 by the finding of shells of liitoral mussels at great depths north of the 

 ridge. That this land-connection may have been postglacial was assumed 

 by Forbes, Geikie, Nathorst and Drude. Later on, Nathorst 

 appears to have changed his opinion somewhat, and recently^ 

 Thoroddsen, relying on the glacia! rockstriae of the Faeröes and 

 Iceland expressed the opinion that the land-bridge sank towards t ( 

 end of the miocene period and since then the above named countries 

 have not been in connection with each other. Furthermore Brögger 

 wrote — in a letter to Warming — that during the wärmest period of 

 the glacial time the land-connection was probably still some metres lower 

 down than it is to-dav. 



The hypothesis of a land-depression proved by the finding of shells of 

 littoral mussels at great depths hasbeen strongly opposed by A.C.Johansen 



