128 H. MØLHOLM HANSEN 
Ås previously mentioned, the flag vegetation is peculiar to this 
level, and this type of vegetation has just those characteristics which 
were pointed out for Zone IV, or the jadar vegetation, viz. a low 
chamaephyte percentage and high H and Th percentages; these 
conditions are, however, more pronounced in the flag than in the 
jadar vegetation. Thus the forces which produce and sustain the 
flag vegetation act, though in slighter degree, wherever this level of 
moisture occurs, even where no flag is developed. 
The cryptophytes, i.e. the helophytes and geophytes, are 
peculiar to the lower sections of the scale of moisture, just as Ch, 
Th, and H are peculiar to its upper sections. HH are most abun- 
dant in the lowlands and the south country, decreasing in quantity 
as we pass to higher levels. This agrees with the HH percentage 
in the Greenlandish local floras where, as previously shown, the 
HH percentage decreases from south to north along the west coast 
as well as the east coast. 
As regards the distribution of HH in the scale of moisture, 
they naturally occur in the greatest quantity in the flöi on soil that 
is constantly covered with water; thence they decrease strongly 
through the.myri, until they disappear entirely in jadar. 
The geophytes have a similar distribution. In Zone VII, 
the dampest section of the scale, they attain their maximum; thence 
the G percentage decreases strongly and steadily throughout the scale 
until, in Zone I, they attain their minimum which is lowest in the 
north country and highland tracts, highest in the south country. 
Thus the geophytes, on this point too, present a contrast to the 
therophytes and chamaephytes. 
In regard to species the cryptophytes show the same conformity 
to law; thus the freshwater vegetation of Vestfirdir has an HH 
percentage of 70, the myri vegetation an HH percentage of only 9. 
In the same locality the G percentage of the myri is 25, of the mo, 
14, and of melar only 9. 
We have now seen the distribution of Raunkizr’s life-forms 
in the Icelandic scale of moisture. From the circling results it 
appears that the individual life-forms attain their maximum deve- 
lopment at different grades of the scale. Passing from the bottom 
to the top of the scale, the following sequence appears 
Heloph. — Geoph. — Hemicryptoph. — Theroph. & Chamaeph. 
