Dr Lauder Lindsay on the Flora of Iceland. 81 
conclude that much remains to be learned of the alpine vege- 
tation of Iceland. Again, though such a traveller as Robert 
spent two years in perambulating the greater part of the 
island, the fact that he did not add a single new plant to the 
list of Vahl, or to previous lists, suffices to prove to my mind the 
want of care with which he conducted his botanical researches 
or made his botanical collections. British botanists have 
visited, for the most part, only a very limited portion of the 
island, viz.,—the vicinity of Reykjavik and the country to the 
north and south-west of that town, that is to say, parts of the 
Guldbringé, Arness, Borgar, and Myré-Syssels or districts. 
This is very far from being the most fertile section of Iceland 
—that most prolific in vegetation ; indeed, there is perhaps 
scarcely a more barren inhospitable waste in the whole island 
than the neighbourhood of Reykjavik. The entire range 
of the southern alps, thé mountain ranges generally, the West- 
manna, and other islands off the shores of Iceland, the fertile 
valleys and fjords of the north and east coasts, and a large 
part of the north-west seaboard, seem to me still open botanical 
fields. Mr Babington appears to participate in this belief, in 
so far as he states in his paper (p. 16), “ there is great reason 
to think that a rich and almost unexplored field for botanical 
research exists in the northern part of Iceland. All the ac- 
counts of that part of the island describe it as by far the most 
fertile portion of the country. It is also believed that the 
eastern districts would well repay examination.” 
Not only is my appended list imperfect in extent, or as to 
the number of species enumerated; it may possibly also be 
erroneous to this extent, and in this wise, that I do not feel 
satisfied (notwithstanding the care that has been bestowed 
on it) that it does not contain unwittingly the names of 
species which are really not natives of Iceland, or that the 
Synonymes are in all cases correct. How far I am justified 
in entertaining such suspicions can only be determined by 
the future labours of botanical travellers, who will require to 
collect and determine anew the names of the species so col- 
lected. 
My object at present being simply to revise the lists of 
Icelandic plants up to 1860, I do not here enter at all. on 
NEW SERTES.—VOL. XIV. NO. I.—JULY 1861. 7 
