966 



Herbaceous piants with showy flowers are strongly repre- 

 sented on Ihe grass-slope, the following being most frequent: Bellis, 

 Trifoliiim repens, BrnnelUi, Cerastinm valgåre, Viola siluestris, Leon- 

 todon, Polygala serpyllacea, P. viilgaris Ballii, Potentilhi erecta, Eii- 

 phrasia minima, Thymiis, Rannncnlns acer and Sagina procumbens. 

 Here again spot-bound piants are in a strong niajority, although 

 there are a few species like Trifolium repens with wandering shoots 

 above ground. All these planls lend to the grass-slope a wealth of 

 colour, but in consequence of the close and searching grazing by 

 sheep, this is not so great as might be expecled. 



The fniclification of most of the species is generally satis- 

 factory, provided the grazing does not interfere with development. 

 Most of the flowers are of the open type, and either self-pollinated 

 or visited by flies; several species require insects with a longer 

 proboscis (e. g. Thgmns, Brnnella and Trifolium repens) ; whether 

 these set their fruits so well is doubtful. 



It may have been noted that many of the piants of the grass- 

 slopes also occur both in the heather-moor and in the grass-moor. 

 This is even more noticeable with the mosses. These play an 

 important part in this formation, more especially the Hylocomia 

 (the species are named above, p. 954), and the following are 

 also very abundant: Polytrichnm alpinum, P. commune, Dicranum 

 scoparium, Thyidium tamariscifolinm. Grimmia hypnoides, Stereodon 

 ericetorum, Ctenidium moUuscnm, Isothecium tenuinerve and Ambly- 

 stegium aduncum, also the liverworts, Diplophyllum albicans, Frul- 

 lania tamarisci and Nardia scalaris. The lichens are very sub- 

 ordinate elements, except Peltigera canina which occurs frequently, 

 but not in quantity. 



The associations of the grass-slope formation dilTer considerably 

 from each other, as can be seen from the examples given above. 



Thus the Carex-binervis-Luzula-silvatica association 

 (Examples 1 and 2) may be singled out as a distinct association 

 with a close affinity in one direction to the Færoese heather-moor, 

 and on the other band to the »Hammer«-vegetation, described later, 

 This association has generally a more or less humous substratum 

 which has already been referred to (p. 962). 



The association which I regard as the typical grass-slope is 

 the Anthoxanthum-Agrostis-vulgaris association (Examples 

 3—7). It appears in two distinct facies — the Ag rostis-inilgaris 

 facies (Ex. 3—5) and the Anthoxanthum facies (included in 



