KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR BAND 50. N:0 3. 115 



Near running water were carpets of bryophytes with Hymeiwpliyllimi jalklan- 

 dicum and torfuosum, the latter one of the most common ferns of Fuegian rain- 

 forest. Huge blocks gave shelter on all sides. 



Bryophytes: Atrichopsis magellanica Card. n. gen. et spec,, Dicranum tenui- 

 cuspidatum; Jamesoniella maluina, LophocoJea otiphylla, pallidevirens, Plagiochila 

 cuneata. 



The Alpine heatli. (Pl. XI: i, 2.) 



There is not one single moantain so high that different regions of vegetation 

 are well developed. The Empetrum-Bolax-heath. also covers the highest summits, 

 where the character is changed a little : it becomes poorer in phanerogamic species, 

 but richer in cryptogams, and there occur some few Alpine plants that never or 

 rarely descend to a lower level. This is the kind of vegetation in the Falklands that 

 most nearly resembles the tundra in South Georgia, Kerguelen etc. 



The first to describe this vegetation was d'Ue,ville. He ascended Mont Chä- 

 tellux (= Mont Simon on the Admiralty Chart, according to him 585, to the chart 

 barely 500 m. high), and there are to be found four higher plants which he consi- 

 dered characteristic of sucli situations: Polystichum mohrioides, Nassauvia serpeyis, 

 Drapetes muscosus and Valeriana sedifoUa. Of these, I should prefer to exclude 

 Nassauvia and Drapetes, which are quite as common or even commoner at a lower 

 level; Nassauvia is characteristic of the block-fields, irrespective of their height above 

 the sea. The researches of låter years have shown that the following species can be 

 considered as forming an Alpine element: Azorella selago, Hamadryas argentea, Lyco- 

 podium selago (?), Polystichum mohrioides, Valeriana sedifolia, Viola tridentata, but 

 only two of them, Azorella and Valeriana, are confined to the highest summits. The 

 rest also occur in the lowlands, and sometimes down to the level of the sea. This 

 is not very astonishing. If we turn to subantarctic South America, it is a rule that 

 species which in the more continental part are strictly confined to the Alpine 

 region, are found at much lower levels when we come to the rainy oceanic zone. 

 The explanation of this lies in low summer-temperature in the that zone, and, 

 from this point of view the Falklands can be expected to show the same pheno- 

 menon, which they indeed do. I am ignorant of the reason why Azorella and Va- 

 leriana are confined to the summits, which is not at all the case with the former 

 in Kerguelen. 



14. Top of Mount Adam, c. 700 m., gently inclined slope against N. Stony 

 and gravelly soil ; vegetable cover open. 



Dwarf-bushes: 



Cop. Perncttija jjumila Sol. Empefrum rubrum Gaultheria ynicrophylla. 



Cushion plants: 



Cop. Azorella lycopodioides Spårs. Bolax gummifera Sol. Drapetes muscosus 



Spårs. Abrotanella emarginata Sol. Azorella selago{—^/2 m. diam.) Valeriana sedifolia 



