772 



From even far above the highest water mark down to a depth 

 of about 15 fathoms, we may often find a dense, well developed 

 algal vegetation , which is divided naturally by the tides into two 

 regions: the littoral and the sublittoral. At few piaces is there, 

 I think, a littoral vegetation so luxuriant as that of the Færoes. 

 This is certainly due in the first place to the very favourable cli- 

 mate, secondly to the situation in the open sea, where the surf 

 constantly washes on the coast and thus enables the algæ to grow 

 far above the highest water mark. Nevertheless the vegetation of 

 exposed coasts hardly ever becomes as luxuriant as the Fiicaceæ- 

 vegetation in more sheltered piaces. But even this abundant, lit- 

 toral vegetation is far surpassed by the sublittoral vegetation of the 

 Laminariaceæ which covers a large area of the bottom of the sea 

 with »forests« of almost a man's height, and a vigorous undergrowth 

 of epiphytes. 



As almost everywhere in the cold temperate seas, the brown 

 algæ predominate in size as well as in number on the coasts of the 

 Færoes, both in the sublittoral region with its Laminariaceæ and 

 other algæ sheltered by these, and also in the littoral. As to the 

 latter, this is only the case, however, so far as the Fucaceæ-vegeta- 

 tion of sheltered coasts is concerned, on exposed coasts the vege- 

 tation becomes more varied, both red, brown and green algæ 

 crowd together, and sometimes green algæ, e. g. Enteromorpha and 

 Acrosiphonia , sometimes red, e. g. Porphyra and Rliodymenia pre- 

 dominate over large tracts. Even in the size of the piants, the 

 red algæ may rival the brown algæ. With the exception of some 

 Laminariæ and Alariæ which in favourable piaces sometimes ex- 

 tend into the littoral region, only Himanthalia attains any consider- 

 able height. 



In connection with this brief description of the general charac- 

 ter of the algal vegetation I endeavour to give in the diagram above 

 a general view of the different algæ-formations and algæ-associa- 

 lions, the different levels at which they occur, and the manner in 

 which they replace each other; thus, it will be clearly seen that 

 the number of algæ-associations reaches its height in the littoral 

 region and then gradually decreases on each side. 



