907 



Consequently it is necessary in characterising a country with Ihe 

 aid of its biologicai plant-types — i. e. the plant-climate of a coun- 

 try — to make a »statistic« of the species with reference to their 

 biological types. 



In the later Danish edition of his paper Mr. Raunkiær has 

 made the first attempt towards such a characterisation. This is not 

 an easy task, because it is assumed that one knows all the species 

 of a country so well, that they can be referred to their biological 

 type. To make the matter easier, Raunkiær has reduced the num- 

 ber of his types by grouping them, and has set the limit at 10 

 types. The value of such statistics will be evident at once on coni- 

 paring the figures obtained by counting the species of two countries 

 with different climates, and Mr. Raunkiær has prepared (Raunkiær 

 1907, p. 129) a tabular comparison between the piants of Denmark 

 and those of two West-Indian islands, St. Thomas and St. John, 

 with regard to their biological types. 



As it is of interesl to obtain statistics of the biological types 

 from as many countries as possible, I have attempted to do so with 

 the Færoese flora. In the list on pp. 896 — 902 I have added to the 

 plant-names an abbreviation which indicates the biological type of 

 each species. Mr. Raunkiær has kindly looked through my list and 

 States that my references are comparable with those used in his 

 papers (Raunkiær 1907, and Raunkiær, Dansk Ekskursionsflora, 2. ed., 

 1906). I give liere the figures, together with those for Denmark and 

 for St. Thomas and St. John takeii from Raunkiær's paper: — 



Number of species 



Færoes 



298 



Den- 

 mark 



1084 



D.W. Ind. 

 St. Tho- 

 mas and 

 St. John 



904 



Biological types 



Mega- and Mesophanerophj'tes .... 



Microphanerophytes 



Nanophaneroph3'tes 1 (3) 



Epiphytes 



Phanerophytes with succulent stems 



Chamæphytes 



Hemicr3'ptoph}'tes » 58(176) 



Geophytes 11 (33) 



10 (29) 

 9 (26) 



1. 



2. 

 3. 

 4. 

 5. 

 6. 

 7. 

 8. 



Helo- and Hydrophytes. 

 10. Therophytes 



100 



3 

 50 



11 

 H 

 18 



100 



5 

 23 

 30 



1 

 2 



12 

 9 

 3 

 1 



14 



100 



