THE LAND-VEGETATION OF THE FÆROES, 



WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE HIGHER PLANTS, 



BY 



C. H. OSTENFELD. 



INTRODUCTION. 



AN attempt is made in these pages to give an account of the vege- 

 . tation of the Færoes, including its dependence on, and adapt- 

 ation to external conditions; the whole together forms a contribution 

 to the plant ecology of the Færoes. It is not my intention to discuss 

 questions relating to the Færoese flora and the history of its immi- 

 gration, because the floristic and phyto-geographical aspects of the 

 land-vegetation have already formed the subject of contributions in 

 »The Botany of the Færoes«, Vol. I (Ostenfeld 1901 b, 1901 c). In a 

 later supplementary list (Ostenfeld 1907), I also revised the vascular 

 piants found on the islands, adding those species foand since the 

 issue of the earlier memoirs, and in other ways bringing the floris- 

 tic list up to date. 



My observations on the vegetation of the islands were made 

 chiefly during the summer of 1897, the period referred to in »Bot. of 

 the Færoes«, Vol. I. Previously I had made short visits in 1895—1896 

 with the Ingolf-Expedition, and in 1903, in addition, I spent three 

 weeks on Stromo (Thorshavn) and on Sydero. The experience 

 thus gained led to the publication of the memoirs referred to and 

 also provided material for the present contribution, which was first 

 published in Danish in December 1906 (Ostenfeld 1906). 



That this paper has its shortcomings and defects I know too 

 well. The principal reason for this is, that all my observations 

 were made during summer (between May 7th and Sept. lOth), hence 

 I have no personal acquaintance with conditions during the stormy, 

 sleety Færoese winter, and am obliged to supply this lack in my 

 information by purely meteorologicai statistics relating to the 

 Færoese climate (Willaume-Jantzen, 1899 and 1905). Fortunately 

 however, I have obtained a certain amount of supplementary infor- 

 mation of great value from a botanical point of view. This consists 



Botany of the Fa-roes. 5(5 



