THE CONTINENTAL FLORA OF SOUTH SWEDEN 377 



Chapter XII. 

 Conclusions about the Position of the South Swedish Flora. 



One object of the enquiry that is now concluded has been to make some con- 

 tribution towards the establishment in some detail of the position of the flora 

 of South Sweden in the floristic region of Middle Europe. As the enquiry affects 

 only some of the species of the South Swedish flora, it cannot, of course, lead 

 to any final result in this respect. I should like to summarize the hints that it 

 has given: 



Engler, in his flora system, divides the lowlands of Middle Europe, Balticum 

 or the Baltic Region, into two provinces — an easterly one, the Sarmatian, and 

 a westerly one, the Subatlantic province. The boundary between them is placed 

 somewhere about the central part of North Germany. Of South Sweden only 

 the most southerly part is included — • a south-westerly part, Skane, which is 

 brought under the Subatlantic province, and a south-easterly part, Oland and 

 Gotland, which are brought under the Sarmatian province. The remaining and 

 larger part of South Sweden is assigned to a sub-province which he calls » Scan- 

 dinavia*, in the Subarctic district (»Gebiet»). 



Drude (1890) also distinguishes in Balticum two regions: »Die Ost- und West- 

 baltische Waldregion.» He does not say in any detail where the boundary 

 between them is to be placed. But the whole of South Sweden, as far as the 

 limit of the oak, falls under Drude's Baltic flora districts and seems to be accounted 

 part of the East Baltic region. 



A division of Sweden in accordance with Engler's principles would a priori 

 scarcely seem to be the most natural one. The most important change in the 

 Swedish flora we should more probably expect to find in Central Sweden and 

 the extreme south of Norrland, that is to say in the neighbourhood of the 

 northerly limit of the oak. A closer investigation also shows plainly that the 

 flora in these districts undergoes a distinctly greater change than the transition 

 from the extreme south of Sweden to Central Sweden. Of the Swedish species 

 that are found in North Germany about go species do not extend, or extend 

 only to an insignificant extent, north of Skane, Blekinge, southern Halland, 

 Oland, and Gotland, while about 300 species are found in the rest of South 

 Sweden but are altogether lacking in Norrland (cf. pp. 272 and 273). 



Thus it would seem to be most expedient to follow Drude in letting the limits 

 of the Baltic region include the whole of South Sweden. 



Manifest though it is that the Baltic region ought to be divided into an easterly 

 and a westerly province, it is no less difficult to determine where the boundary 



