54 



tliem are verv rare in northern Dalarne. The t^vo last mentioned 

 are rather Continental plants. 



In Fennoscandia Gypsophila also occurs in Skåne, on the isles of 

 Oland and Gotland, and in some places in Finland. In Skåne the 

 author has found it in a planted pine-forest and on sand-fields near 

 the lake Snogeholmssjön. The plants found in these associations 

 are mentioned on pp. 38 — 40 (A and B in the list). Of particular 

 interest is the occurrence of some plants characterizing the steppes 

 of southeastern P^urope, viz. Carex aicnarid, Gypsophila fastigiata, 

 Helichrysum arenarium and Piilsatilla pratensis. 



On the isles of Öland and Gotland Gypsophila occurs on lime- 

 stone-fields (S^v. alfvar») and sand-fields. 



In Finland Gypsophila is found on the Isthmus Karelicus, in Sata- 

 kunta, Kuusamo and Lapponia Imandrse, as well on sand-fields as 

 on rocks. 



Except in Fennoscandia, Gypsophila occurs in the western parts 

 of Russia, in Austria, Hungary, eastern Germany and very seldom 

 in two districts of western Germany. In the central parts of its 

 sphere of distribution Gypsophila is a plant rather characteristic of the 

 sandy pine-forests and the sand-pusztas. On the sand-pusztas of Hun- 

 gary it belongs to the S///ja-society, which has a very great phy- 

 siognomical likeness to the Carex arcnaria-society at Snogeholms- 

 sjön in Skåne. 



Gypsophila in Fennoscandia and western Germany is generally 

 considered a relict from a period with a climate more favourable 

 to stepj)e-plants than the present one. The Scandinavian steppe- 

 plants have probablj^ immigrated to Fennoscandia during the last 

 part of the Ancylus-time. 



The habitats of Gypsophila in Dalarne do not belong to a district 

 of especially Continental climate. The author thinks, that the heat- 

 ing of its vegetation-ground during the summer renders its existence 

 here possible. Any climatological explanation of its occurrence in 

 PMnland (e. g. on the Kola-peninsula) is not possible at least for 

 the present. Gypsophila must have spread över long distances to pla- 

 ces of favourable edaphical conditions. Bul it is possible, that its 

 introduction to Mora, where it now occurs, took place at a time, 

 when the vegetation of its habitats was not so closed as to-day. 



