102 H. MØLHOLM HANSEN 
series: mo, jadar, myri, and fléi depends on the increasing content 
of moisture in the soil. In the following I shall describe the phy- 
siognomic, biological, and floristic relations of the individual types 
of vegetations. 
The Melar Vegetation. Cf. figs. 15—17 and table 22 A, 1—6. 
As mentioned above, the melar vegetation occurs at the top and 
on the ridges of the moraine walls. In the winter, when the land- 
scape is covered with snow, these are either bare or have a very 
slight snow-covering. Consequently the frost penetrates deeper into 
the earth which again causes a slower process of thawing in the 
spring. This in connection with the position causes solifluction 
from the ridge of the hill towards the depression. On a steep slope 
the material will pour down in large tongues, as seen in fig. 23; if 
the slope is less steep, it will arrange itself in small ledges with a 
naked, gravelly horizontal surface, outwardly bounded by an edge 
covered with plants which connects the two corners of the ledge 
like a sweeping garland. Looking towards the depression, such an 
area of solifluction looks very poor in plants (cf. fig. 16), looking 
towards the ridge of the hill, the same surface seems somewhat 
more clothed with plants (cf. fig. 17). 
The characteristics of melar are thus a slight or no snow- 
covering, solifluction, and a bare gravelly or stony soil. 
The composition of the melar vegetation has been given in 
table 22 A, 1—6. Despite the open vegetation a relative abundance 
and density of species occur. The average number of species is 27, 
the density c. 8, varying from 5.6 to 9.4. In the biological spectrum 
the chamaephytes dominate with an average percentage of 52.4, H 
and especially G are relatively less important. The Th percentage 
is c. 2. Even if this figure is low, it is comparatively high compared 
with the Th percentage of the south country, a fact which it seems 
natural to connect with the relatively continental climate of the 
highlands. On melar in the north country the Th percentage is 
still higher; here the climate not only tends to be more continental 
than in the south country, but is also milder than in the highlands. 
The A and E species are as 4 to 1; within the A sub-groups 
A 3 is especially conspicuous, the average percentage being 55.4. Of 
the E sub-groups only E 4 occurs and with a somewhat lower per- 
centage than in the other types of vegetation. 
