282 RIKARD STERNER 



4. Viola pumila has in several parts of its area of distribution been distinguished 

 only in late years, and consequently some uncertainty may be inherent in the 

 reports about it. In South Russia it seems to occur chiefly on the steppes. 

 Korshinsky (1. c. p. 53) says: »in steppis stipaceis, decliviis apricis (imprimis cal- 

 careis) stepposis necnon in pratis stepposis». Litvinov (1886) quotes »V. pra- 

 tensis M. K.» from the government of Tambov, and reports that it there grows 

 principally in »steppelike places» on the »chernozyom». These accounts are con- 

 firmed by the specialist in Violae, Becker, who in his monograph on the European 

 Violae species (Becker 19 10) quotes V. pumila from the Russian steppes, and 

 who in a paper (Becker 1916) gives observations of his own on this subject. 



5. Isatis tinctoria is at least in some parts an important distinctive plant in the 

 Stipa steppe. It was formerly grown over great parts of Middle Europe, and it is 

 impossible to fix its spontaneous distribution outside the steppes. It may be that 

 it is spontaneous on the Baltic coast of South Sweden and that its occurrence 

 here is possibly analogous to that of Silene viscosa (see later on chapter ix). 



6. The mode of occurrence of the Siberian species is often difficult to make 

 out. Carex obtusata, according to Korshinsky (1. c. p. 437), occurs only on rocks 

 in its East European localities in the Urals (gov. of Perm and Orenburg); 

 in its inconsiderable locaUties in Central Germany it seems to form part of her- 

 baceous sand-grass heaths or dry meadows on hillsides (Drude 1902, p. 416 and 

 Ascherson in Verh. d. botan. Vereins d. Provinz Brandenburg, Bd. 39, pp. xLii ff.). 



Halophytic Steppe Species. A separate position is occupied by the species 

 which are peculiar to the halophytic steppe: Bassia hirsuta, Plantago tenuiflora, 

 Atriplex pedunculatum, and Artemisia rupestris and laciniata. Outside the steppes 

 these species exist principally on the seashore or in other places where the soil 

 is rich in salt. 



Bassia hirsuta has its few localities in Europe, except in Southern Russia, ex- 

 clusively on sea shores (Plate 13). 



Atriplex pedunculatum, besides having a fairly wide distribution on the shores 

 of the southern Baltic Sea and the North Sea, has also some locaUties in saltish 

 places in Central Germany (e. g. Drude 1902, p. 39). 



Artemisia rtcpestris, which has its principal distribution in Siberia, occurs in two 

 localities in Central Germany in saltish places (1. c. pp. 387 fT.), but on Oland 

 and Gotland, where it has a wide distribution on the pavement of the ^Alvar^, 

 it is often found in a heath- or steppe-like vegetation in shallow soil, which 

 during the winter half-year is rich in water and shows decided signs of a heav- 



