115 



ficiently applied, chiefly on account of the incompleteness and inaccu- 

 racy of the facts at his disposal. He is undoubtedly right in seeing 

 proofs of this theory in the composition of the flora. Considering the 

 smaHness of the area covered by the Færoes (1325 square km.), their 

 unfavourable chmate and situation, and tlie uniformily of the soil, 

 we may be justified in calHng a flora comparatively rich which con- 

 sists of 277 (+ 40) vascular piants. I do not think an area of similar 

 size and quality in North Scotland contains a considerably larger 

 number of species. Further the flora bears a wonderful resemblance 

 to that of Scotland. If it had been a question of immigration across 

 the sea, the flora taken as a whole would hardly have been so 

 very much like that of Scotland. It would have consisted of fewer 

 species, and the species would perhaps have developed or been in 

 the aet of developing peculiar forms, while the faet is that species 

 with even the most limited geographical distribution and partly of 

 critical value are not restricted to the Færoes, but on the contrary, 

 as, e. g. species of Eiiphrasia (E. otropiirpurea, horealis and scoticaj, 

 also occur in Shetland and North Scotland or, as, e. g. Alchimilla 

 faeroensis, also in Iceland. It is further a faet that typical insular 

 floras have a comparatively large number of species, whose fruits 

 or seeds are adapted for dissemination by the agency of the wind, 

 but this is not the case liere, as out of the 277 species of which 

 the flora consists, only 98 (35,5%) — all told — may be supposed 

 to have been carried by the wind; of these 71 species have small 

 seeds and only 27 (9,8^ ja) have flying apparatiis (hair, wings). 

 Piants with fleshy fruits are also rare, only 6 having fruits resem- 

 bling berries, to which must however be added some (18) aquatic 

 piants, the fruits of which are drupes with a thin pulpy layer 

 {Potamogeton etc). 



If we now investigate the action of the usual disseminating 

 agencies, we shall see that the result is very small. The direction 

 of the ocean currents, which might carry fruits (seeds) along 

 with them, are as unfavourable as possible for the Færoes. A 

 strong extension of the Gulf Stream^ flows south-east of the islands, 

 and as it comes from the open Atlantic to the south-west of the 

 Færoes and has not touched land since the West Indies, the only 

 seeds it could possibly convey are tropical. — Entacla Gigalohiiim 



^ See Martin Knudsen and C. Ostenfeld: Iagttagelser over Overflade- 

 vandets Temperatur, Saltholdii^hed og Plankton paa islandske og gronlandske 

 Skihsrouter i 1898. Kobenhavn 18i)i), p. 44. 



8* 



