871 



comes covered with weeds (my Melamorphic Vegetation), and grad- 

 iially arrives at the condition of a grassy meadow with Holcus 

 Uinatiis and mollis, Antho.vanlhiim, Festuca pratensis^ and Agrostis 

 vulgaris; in other words the iisual »B6«-formation. 



A record is also made of the pecuharity that the houses are 

 all thatched with green turf, on which the grass thrives so well, 

 that »one can mow hay on the housetop« (1. c, p. 149), and a list 

 of the piants growing on the roof of Sorvaag church on Vaago is 

 given. 



A few years after Lyngbye, the danish geologist Forchham- 

 mer visited the Færoes accompanied by a Scotsman, W. C. Tre- 

 velyan, who published a short paper on the vegetation and climate 

 of the Færoes (Trevelyan 1835 — 37). What he has to say regarding. 

 the vegetation is mainly quoted from the memoirs of Landt and 

 Lyngbye, but some original observations are given in his note on- 

 an ascent of Malinsfjæld on Videro, which Trevelyan and Forch- 

 hammer made on July 18th 1821. The list of species growing on« 

 the summit-plateaux corresponds exactly with Lyngbye's list from 

 Skællingfjæld, and Trevelyan adds the attitudes at which the dif- 

 ferent alpine species were first observed during the ascent. 



The next contribution to our knowledge of the vegetation of 

 the Færoes is that of Ch. Martins, who came to Thorshavn with 

 the French corvette »La Recherche«, and during his stav there 

 made excursions to Stromo and Nolso, His observations formed 

 the basis of a comparative study of the flora of the Færoes, Shet- 

 land and Iceland with regard to the routes and agents concerned 

 in the immigration of these floras (Martins 1848). It is beyond the 

 province of this paper either to review or to criticise this part of 

 Martins' contribution. There is the oft-repeated description of agri- 

 cultural conditions and the methods of cultivating the soil. Short 

 sketches are given, however, of the vegetation in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Thorshavn, and on Nolso from the coast to the 

 sumniit of the mountain on that island. 



The characteristic rounded rocks north of Thorshavn with their 

 varying vegetation are accurately described, and he distinguishes be- 

 tween the barren and exposed tops, where Armeria is so prominent, 

 and the boggy hollows with Eriophorum, etc. On Nolso he men- 

 tions the vegetation of the sandy strand with Honckenya, Cochlearia 

 and Potentilla anserina, and attention is draw'n to Nardus stricta as 



^ The identification is not correct; Festuca riibra is probablj' what is nieant. 



