92 CARL SKOTTSBERG, A BOTANICAL SURVEY OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



Spitzbergen has, according to Raunki^r, a typical »Chamsephyte climate», Ch 

 exceeding 20 % of the total number of species. And, according to him, the same 

 must be the case with the Falklands; indeed, these Islands would appear to possess 

 such a climate still more pronoiinced tlian in Spitzbergen, But everybody knows, 

 that the climate of the Falklands is very different from that of Spitzbergen. Never- 

 theless, they show the same kind of biological speetra. Is, then, the physiognomy 

 the same or nearly so in both cases? We cannot expect this, if we judge from the 

 climate, and, as I shall try to show, the difference is of a substantial character. It 

 can, however, not be expressed by Raunki.^r's method. For, according to my opi- 

 nion, one of the most prominent features of the physiognomy of Falkland vegetation 

 lies in the predominance of evergreen species. All the Phanerophytes and 

 Chamsephytes are evergreen. The former do not possess budscales. Chiliotrichum 

 and Senecio Darwinii have wooUy buds with tlie fu'st leaves shorter and less deve- 

 loped than the rest; Veronica elliptica was described and figured by Raunki^r {30, 

 p. 358, fig. 2 a), in all cases young leaves are protected by the old ones. The 

 Chamsephytes belong to the different groups of Raunki^r, there are dwarf-shrubs,^ 

 passive and active Chamsephytes and cushion-plants, but it is common to them all 

 that they are more or less evergreen. Only Pernettya and Gaultheria have closed 

 buds, protected by bract-like, imbricate leaves, the other dwarf-shrubs {Baccharis, 

 Empetrum, Myrteola, Nassauvia, Perezia) have ± open buds, protected by old leaves; 

 in Empetrum the dense cover of long, crisp hairs along the margins of the young 

 leaves is especially protective. Cushion-plants are numerous; their young leaves 

 are not specially protected, but it must be remembered that these plants have 

 a ± pronounced xerophytic structure: Äbrotanella, Arm,eria, Astelia, Äzorella ccespi- 

 tosa, selago and jilamentosa f. ynaritima, Bolax, Calthci appendiculata, Colohanthus (2), 

 Draba jalklandica {?), Drapetes, Gaimardia, Oreobolus, Pla7itago harhata, Saxifraga and 

 Valeriana. Poa flahellata and Carex trifida are cushion-plants of a peculiar type, at 

 least in the former the upper limit of the height of a Ch is very often, perhaps as 

 a rule, exceeded; this also happens with such a typical cushion-plant as Bolax gummi- 

 fera. It does not seem practical to separate them from other species of exactly the 

 same growth but not reaching their height above the gronnd. Active Ch are: AccEna 

 spp., A^iagallis, Äzorella lycopodioides and the typical A. jilamentosa, Chevreulia, Cotula, 

 Crassula, Enargea, Galium, Nertera, Polygonum, Pratia and Rubus; more passive, 

 Cerastium, Nanodea (?) and Stellaria. Of the Hemicryptophytes, there are also several 

 different types. Prot(jhemicryptophytes are not very common: Aster, Calceolaria 

 Fothergillii, Draba juniculosa, Epilobium, Erigeron, Senecio candicans; the otliers are 

 subrosulate or rosette-plants, of which the flora in rich in examples; many grasses 

 and sedge-grasses, Umbelliferse, Caltha sagittata, Drosera, Gjiaphalium, ^ Gunnera, 

 Ranunculaceae, Hieracium, Leuceria and other Compositse, Luzula, Primula etc. It 

 is among the rosette-plants that we meet the few typical H of the Falklands, which 

 correspond well with the definition of H given by RaunkIv^er in his »Types biologiques» 



* I find it better to keep them apart from the active Ch. 

 ^ G. affine is perhaps intermediate between Ch and H. 



