252 ROLF NORDHAGEN 



Undas, 1938; Nordhagen, 1936; Marthinussen, 1961). Further it postulates 

 that during the deglaciation of Norway the "over-wintering" species dispersed 

 eastwards and inland, taking hold in the nearest mountainous regions at the 

 same time as they lost foothold in the coastal areas, among others because 

 other flora elements immigrated and occupied the coast as the cUmate under- 

 went changes in Post-glacial time. 



Since 1940 the plan for my scientific work has been to investigate especially 

 the coastal mountains of southern Norway in order to find "traces" left by the 

 bicentric mountain plants there. These species at present have their center 

 far inland from the coastal districts where they must have survived the Last 

 Glacial period if the survival theory holds true. To use a poetic expression 

 from Macpherson (ahas "Ossian"), I have been hunting for "fragments of 

 ancient poetry" ever since 1940. 



Already in 1941 a young geologist, Anders Heltzen, rendered me unex- 

 pected help. While investigating the massif of Lauparen between Romsdals- 

 f jord and Storf jord in south More about 45 km east of the city of Alesund, 

 Heltzen discovered Saxifraga hieraciifolia at an altitude of 1200-1300 m 

 above sea level in weathered gneissic soil on one of the peaks. The summer of 

 1944 I made an excursion to the said peak, and after a frightening steep 

 ascent I rediscovered the locality (Heltzen and Nordhagen, 1944). Saxifraga 

 hieraciifolia occurs very sparingly here together with among others Pedicidarls 

 Oederi which also has its western limit in Norway on this very peak. In the 

 Sub-alpine region at the foot of the Lauparen Massif there are a number of 

 typical coastal species, such as, for example. Digitalis purpurea, Dryopteris 

 Oreopteris, and slightly farther to the north, Luzula maxima. In 1946, Saxi- 

 fraga hieraciifolia was discovered also on a mountain northeast of Lauparen 

 not far from the Romsdalsfjord itself. 



Up to 1930 Saxifraga hieraciifolia had been regarded as something of a 

 prime example of Axel Blytt's idea that at present time the "arctic flora" of 

 South Norway is confined to those areas which lie in the rain shadow of the 

 western mountains in south Norway. The species was considered a typical 

 inland plant, avoiding the mild, humid climate along the west coast. But 

 already in 1930 I was sceptical towards this dogma since I had discoveree 

 the species in Eikisdalen, a valley east of the Romsdalsfjord (Nordhagen, 

 1930). Thus, during the years 1940-44 1 saw this dogma foiled, and my dream 

 to find the "fragments of ancient poetry" in the coastal mountains had 

 become true. 



On the whole, the survival theory cannot get a better support than the 

 geographical distribution in southern Norway of Saxifraga hieraciifolia: it is 

 now found to exist sporadically all the way to the coast of More. The remark- 

 able distribution pattern of this species can definitely not be explained in 

 accordance with any tabula rasa theory. As S. hieraciifolia at present occurs 

 as a rarity in the Carpathians, the Steyermark and Auvergne, it was easy to 



