;70 



nips; the cultivation of potatoes, which is now rather extensive, 

 was then only beginning, while oats and other crop-plants were 

 then as now of no great importance. Nature was left, as it is to- 

 day, to clothe the cultivated fieids with grass after the bariey-har- 

 vest, and so in the course of a few years to form a meadow. It is 

 noteworthy to what degree conservatism has ruled in agricultural 

 afTairs during the past century, and how only in recent years there 

 has been any progress. 



Pastor H. C. Lyngbye, the author of the well-known, impor- 

 tant work on x-Xlgae: »Tentamen Hydrophytologiae danicae«, visited 

 the Færoes in 1817. From his pen we have (Lyngbye 1822) some: 

 »Anmærkninger til kort Efterretning om Færoerne efter Sir Macken- 

 zie«. This paper includes a somewhat abbreviated translation ot 

 Mackenzie's paper, which however contains little of much interest 

 to us, merely the usual description of methods of cultivation. Lyng- 

 bye's comments, on the other hånd, contain some valuable botani- 

 cal information. His description of the ascent of Skællingfjæld on 

 Stromo (1. c, p. p. 125 — ^126) is specially worthy of notice on account 

 of the detailed observations on the vegetation of the summit-plateau 

 of the mountain. — He states that the summit is »in piaces covered 

 with moss, especially Trichostemum [Grimmia hypnoides and G. eri- 

 coidesj^, and in other piaces it is bare sand and gravel with Koeni- 

 gia islandica appearing sparsely here and there.« Lyngbye has in 

 these words defined the two highland plant-formations, distinguished 

 in this paper as Grimmia-heath and Rocky-flats. He gives a list for 

 the latter which, in addition to a number of lichens and mosses, 

 includes the following species of flowering piants: Festnca vivipara 

 [F. ovina vivipara], Aira montana [A. flexiiosa montana] , Koenigia 

 islandica, Polygoniim vivipariim, Rumex digynns [Oxyria digyna], 

 Saxifraga palmata [S. caespitosa], S. stellaris, Cerastiiim alpiniim [C. 

 Edmondstonii] , Arabis hispida [A.petraea], Statice Armeria and Salix 

 herhacea. This collection of species coincides exactly with my own 

 conception of a rocky plateau as seen in the Færoes. Lyngbye 

 also describes (1. c, p. p. 130) how a cornfield, left uncultivated, be- 



^ Byg, Bigg or Bere are names applied to several hardy varieties of Hordeiim 

 viilgare with short six-rowed ears; the crop is grown onlj' in the upper part of 

 the Oat-zone (e. g. in Scotland) or on inferior soils, and is much less valuahle than 

 tlie finer quaHties of brewing Barleys grown in the Wheat-zone. (Note by W. G. 

 Smith). 



■ The names enclosed in square Ijrackets are those now used. 



