THE CONTINENTAL I-T.ORA OF SOUTH SWEDEN 303 



common spruces, and between them there had been juniper shrubs, some birches, 

 Rosa villosa, and Pteridium. The ground vegetation consisted partly of carpets 

 of mealberry, here and there broken and replaced by a thin herb vegetation. An 

 analysis of an experimental area of i m' in such a vegetation gave the follow- 

 ing result: 

 Shrubs: Juniperus communis (one shrub 3,5 m. high, slender), Rosa villosa (one shrub 



0,75 m. high). 

 I'ndenliruhs: Arctostaphylos uva ursi I, Vaccinium vitis idaea T. 



JTerbs: Achillea millefolium x , Antennaria dioeca x , Arenaria serpyllifolia /. , Campanula 

 rotundifolia I, Fragaria vesca x , Hieracium pilosella I, Hypericum montanum x , 

 Knautia arvensis X , Pimpinella saxifraga x , Potentilla arenaria I, Trifolium me- 

 dium X , Veronica chamaedrys x , Vicia cracca x , Viola rupestris x . 

 Grasses: Agrostis tenuis 1, Carex ericetorum I, Festuca ovina I, Pea angustifolia X . 

 Mosses and licliens: Bryum sp. I, Barbula sp. I, Cladonia pyxidata x • 



As regards the herb flora we have here a quite normal eastern Smaland herbace- 

 ous hillside. 



The OS slope faced downwards towards a wooded country, but the os was so 

 high that the forest below could not in any degree worth mentioning contribute 

 to the shading of the ground. This os section is situated in a fairly desolate country. 

 It had on one side Lake Drettingen, one kilometre broad, on the other wide 

 woodlands and moorlands. The occasional timber-cutting on the os slopes has 

 furthered the heliophilous ground vegetation, but would not seem to have been 

 of very much greater importance to it than the thinning of the forest through 

 windfalls. Windfalls ought to take place easily as it is difficult for the trees to 

 gain a secure roothold on the steep gravel slope. 



A fact that speaks strongly in favour of the oses playing a great part for the 

 occurrence of steppe species in eastern Smaland, even in a quite natural vege- 

 tation, is that the steppe species often occur in a large number on or near os 

 sections where a sufficiently exposed southerly slope may be conceived to have 

 always existed: where the os is high and steep, as at Drettinge, or faces un- 

 wooded country. A couple of examples of the composition of the flora in such 

 cases will be given. 



A couple of miles north of Drettinge »Braasen» runs along the western shore 

 of Lake Orken. It projects some distance into the lake, forming a promontory. 

 On the north-east, therefore, it is here surrounded by the wide surface of the 

 lake and on the south-west by a piece of swampy ground, forming a creek in 

 the lake. Braas would seem to be botanically famous thanks to several rarities 

 in its flora. On the os grow the following species ///Av ^^//(rz: Brachypodium pinna- 

 tum, Cotoneaster melanocarpa (? really spontaneous), Crepis praemorsa (which 

 is a rarity in Smaland), Hypericum montanum, Potentilla arenaria, Pulmonaria 

 angustifolia, and Thesium alpinum. 



