KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 50. N:0 3. 77 



But from this we cannot draw the conclusion that they have disappeared altogether, 

 for they have always been rare and perhaps they only grow in one or two places, 

 which have not been visited since the discoverer made his find. I should hardly 

 think that cattle or sheep have had any influence upon such plants as Draba falk- 

 landicu or Schizcea! 



Thus, if the infhience of man and domestic animals has been injurious enough, 

 the original vegetation has, on the other hand, been less disturbed in the Falklands 

 than in most places where Eiiropeans Ii ve, for the soil is only cultivated to a very 

 small extent. Garden cultivation is all that could be thronght of, for the climate 

 does not allow any kind of corn to ripen. 



In my previous paper on the flora of the Falklands (14) I pointed out that 

 Birger {!) seems to have exaggerated the influence of sheep upon the vegetation, 

 and after my second visit I must confess that I am more unable than ever to un- 

 derstand how he reached his conclusions. I regret that I must return to this ques- 

 tion once more. Birger describes, from »otherwise uniform heath», two different 

 places; one of them is said to have been grazed över by horses, cattle and sheep, the 

 other had been fenced off and protected. The difference is indeed very great! The 

 reserved part shows a tj-pical C ortaderia- association, the other an Empetrum-heath, 

 and the reader gets the impression that the grasses and many of the other plants 

 have been killed and replaced by other species. But the Corto(^<?na-association is the most 

 dominant type of vegetation all över the Islands, it is the most common form of sheep- 

 camp, and is grazed över year after year: and the species that according to Birger's 

 theory should suffer so badly and not be able to form flowers or produce seeds, seem 

 to thrive very well; some of them are common in spite of everything. Besides, 

 the sheep do not like Corfaderia, but prefer softer grasses : exactly the species which 

 have disappeared from so many places. The Cortaderia-association has been grazed 

 över by sheep since their introduction, and still C. pilosa luxuriates as ever: that 

 young blades of this as of others are eaten does not affect the species very much. I 

 refer to my description of the meadow: both places had been stocked with sheep and 

 cattle. It should also not be forgotten that the Islands have been over-stocked. The 

 fencing off of the piece of ground described by Birger is not the only reason why it 

 bore the Cortaderia-association, and his Empetrum-heath was not simply due to destruc- 

 tion of less resistent species by grazing: in this case, as in others, there must have been 

 the same differences in the soil which everywhere account for the distribution of 

 Empetrum and Cortaderia. There is not one regular farm near Port Stanley; the 

 camp is poor and has probably always been so. Large träets are covered with peat- 

 bogs: one of the most prominent plants in Birger's »Abgeweidete Partie» was 

 Oreobolus ohtusangulus, and he mentions patches of 100 square m. of ^s^eZm-association. 



But man has not only affected the distribution of indigenous plants, he has 

 also, intentionally or unintentionally, brought with him a number of foreign plants. 



