112 



I am of opinion that we may justly regard the Færoes as a wood- 

 lees north-western extretnitij of the Atlantic part of the woody region 

 of the West Baltic area and not as a woodless extremity of the 

 Scandinavian woody region. This is, however , the case only with 

 the low-lying districts, for the hilly parts mast be reckoned to belong 

 to the alpine (arctic) region, as in the similar instance of the Scot- 

 tish Highlands. What I want to emphasize is, that the Færoes 

 cannot be classed with Iceland, the latter country is regarded by 

 Engler^ and Stromfelt^ as a woodless part of the Scandinavian 

 woody region, by Grisebach ^ as Arctic, and by Drude* as be- 

 longing partly to one of these regions and partly to the other, and 

 the latter opinion being doubtless the most correct. 



The Immigration of the Flora. With regard to the im- 

 migration of the flora very little is known. What the country 

 looked like before the Ice Age, when the coal layers were formed 

 and the erosive action was in full actinity, we have no idea, and 

 the coal layers, as mentioned in the introductory chapter on geo- 

 logy, have not been paleontologically investigated. When the large 

 ice sheet covered the country (which at that time represented the 

 small scattered islands of the present day) all or almost all plant- 

 life — at any rate in its higher forms — was no doubt absent. It 

 is possible that some of the most hardy of the Arctic flowering 

 piants just m anaged to exist in the crevises on the vertical faces 

 of the rocks where ice and snow could not remain, but I think it 

 is well not to take this doubtful possibility into consideration and 

 I regard the whole flora as post-glacial. James Geikie^ is also 

 of this opinion. 



As the land-ice gradually dissolved an Arctic flora, poor in 

 species, must have migrated into the country, and an investigation 

 of the lowest layers of the numerous small bogs would doubtless 

 bring to light traces of this flora. From this latter the present 

 temperate flora, fairly rich in species, has gradually developed. 



^ A. Engler: Die Entwickelungsgeschichte der Pflanzen seit der Tertiarzeit. 

 Leipzig 1879. 



^ H. F. G. Stromfelt: Islands karlva.\ter betraktade från vaxtgeografisk ock 

 floristisk sjnpunkt, p. 84 (Ofvers. af Kongl. Sv. Vetensk. Akad. Forhandl. 1884. Nr. 8. 

 Stockholm). 



^ Grisebach: Die Vegetation der Erde. Leipzig 1872. 



* Drude: 1. c. p. p. 358— 359. 



^ James Geikie: Prehistoric Europe. A Geologicai Sketch, p. 519. London, 1881. 



