1014 



1). The corn and potato fieids, together with the weed-vegetation 

 in the gardens and around the houses (Ruderal vegetation). 



The climate of the Færoes is not well suited for the cultiva- 

 tion of cereals, because the temperature in summer is much too 

 cold. 



A hardy variety of barley or bigg has been grown, however, 

 since ancient times, but it has always been difficult to get it ripe, 

 and generally it has been necessary to harvest the crop and then 

 dry it artificially. Nor has cereal culture increased in importance 

 in recent years; it is still, as it was in former days, mainly useful 

 as a means for securing the formation of the Bo. 



The principal cereal is the six-rowed barley or bigg (Hordeiim 

 vulgare). Fields of oats (Avena sativa) are sometimes seen, while 

 Tartarian oats (A. orientalis) and two-rowed barley (Hordeiim di- 

 stichiim) may be cultivated, but very rarely. The oats are gene- 

 rally cut and used as green fodder. 



The cultivation of potatoes (^So/anum /Hfcerosimj^ has increased 

 to some extent in recent years, and with good leason, even though 

 neither the climate nor the soil are especially adapted for this plant. 

 Turnips (Brassica rapa rapifera) also furnish good crops and 

 should have a future before them. 



Unfortunately I can give no information as to what varieties 

 of these cultivated piants are used; they are probably not very 

 well known, and do not seem to have been investigated. 



Weeds grow luxuriantly in the arable fieids, partly as a 

 result of the moist climate, since this favours the growth of weeds, 

 and partly because no great care is taken to suppress them. Nor 

 is this necessary, since the grass-meadow which follows, is deve- 

 loped by natural selection from such weeds as may be present and 

 succeed in the struggle for existence. Certain of these weeds only 

 appear in the arable area or round the houses and in the gardens, 

 thus Galeopsis tetrahit, Brassica canipestris, Lamium purpiireum, L. 

 intermedium, L. dissectiim, Anchiisa arvensis, Senecio viilgaris, Sper- 

 giila aruensis and Cirsium arvense, as well as some others which 

 have been recorded only once or twice. If there was any reason 

 for assuming that a large proportion of the species of the Bo for- 

 mation were introduced by man, then this supposition is even more 

 probable in the case of the weeds just mentioned. With the ex- 

 ception of Cirsium arvense which is rarely seen in bloom and 



