84 CABL SKOTTSBERG, A BOTANICAL SURVEY OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



have referred the vegetation to the tundra (taken in a wide sense), on account of 

 the great likeness between the associations rich in Polyiricha and other mosses of 

 the same growth, and the true Antarctic tundra. Undoubtedly, there are many 

 relations between Falkland and South Georgian vegetation. The perpetually frozen 

 soil of the geographic tundra is totally wanting; really, I do not see that it 

 has much importance in comparison with other factors, and from a botanical 

 point of view South Georgia may be said to possess a tundra-vegetation. For 

 the Falklands, the word heath is partly most appropriate. However, in the do- 

 minant association, grasses form the vegetable cover and I have separated the Corta- 

 É?ena-association from the Empetrum-hea.th. In 1909 {14) I spöke of the former as 

 steppe, but since that I have changed my opinion. Certainly I was, also at that 

 time, aware of the fact that the word »steppe» has been used for a widely different 

 formation. I used it only because I regarded the (7ortoc?ena-association as the oceanic 

 representative of the continental, Patagonian-Fuegian steppes (pampa). Now I have 

 come to the conclusion, that it is far better to keep the word »steppe» in its original 

 sense. There are, indeed, some important characters that seem to prohibit the use 

 of this term in our case. Thus, the vegetation is not open, there is a ground cover 

 of cryptogams and matforming herbs and the soil consists of peat of some kind, 

 features quite foreign to a typical steppe. Further, the predominant grass, Cortaderia 

 pilosa, does not at all occur in the Magellan steppes; this is also the case with 

 Festuca erecta. And the common steppe-grasses are either absent or do not play any 

 important part. For the non-swampy CortocZena-association, I have used the word 

 meadow, but I am convinced that many plant-geographers will disapprove of the use of 

 this word here. It is difficult to find a suitable name for it; however, the wet facies 

 of it bears some resemblance to a meadow-moor, and therefore I thought that the 

 drier type would deserve to be called meadow. But, at the same time there are 

 also transitions between this meadow and the heath, and thus the term »grass-heath» 

 for the former suggests itself. In fact, Warming {38, p. 200) has classified the 

 »tussock-formation» {Poa jlabellata) with grass-heath, as peculiar to the southern 

 Hemisphere. Tlien, the Cortorferm-association also might be called grass-heath. The 

 European grass-heath, as described by Gräbner a. o. is a facies of ericaceous heath 

 rich in grasses, among which Nardus stricta is especially mentioned, and its equi- 

 valent in the Falklands is hardly the Cortaderia-association — not to speak of the 

 Poa flabellata-association, see below — but an Empetrum-hea.th rich in grasses such 

 as Festuca erecta, Deschampsia flexuosa, Agrostis 7nagella7iica, and other setaceous 

 Graminese. 



It is of a certain interest to observe how Warming {38) deals with the vege- 

 tation in the Falklands. On p. 214 we find a sliort description of what he calls 

 Antarctic heath in Kerguelen, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. In the latter 

 place, »the heath consists of a number of dwarf-shrubs, including Empetrum rubrum, 

 Pernettya pumila, Gaultheria microphylla, Drapetes muscosus, Vaccinium oxycoccus^ 



^ Does not exist in the Falklands. 



