13] 



VEGETATIONAL TYPES OF POLAR LANDS 



397 



growth. In the most unfavourable situations of all, this type may 

 thin out to a stony barren supporting little more than diminutive 

 crustaceous Lichens and very occasional depauperated tussocks of 

 Avens or Purple Saxifrage. 



Although such poorly-vegetated areas tend to be more numerous 

 and widespread in the middle-arctic zone than farther south, they 

 still do not normally occupy the general run of lowland terrain but 

 are chiefly encountered in exposed situations (as for example in the 



Fig. 121. — Fell-field on calciucdus soil m exposed situation, northernmost 



Labrador. 



foreground of Fig. 128). An extensive example is shown in Fig, 

 122, from an altitude of 671 metres (2,200 feet) in central Baffin 

 Island, in which Lichens of poor growth cover much of the surface, 

 vascular plants being virtually absent. 



In most high-arctic regions ' open ' and often extremely sparse 

 vegetation is the general rule, and so fell-field and barrens areas are 

 widespread and plentiful. A relatively well-vegetated and extensive 

 area, reminiscent of many observed by the author in far northern 

 EUesmere Island and Spitsbergen, is seen in Fig. 123, which he 

 took, however, in the vicinity of the North Magnetic Pole on Prince 

 of Wales Island. It shows a monotonous expanse of mixed but 

 scattered and open, diminutive herbs and terricolous {i.e. earth- 

 inhabiting) Lichens, with occasional small tufts of Avens (in this case 

 Dryas integrifolia agg.). The general aspect is desolate in the extreme 

 o 



