4 



A BLYTT. 



[Xo. 8. 



of sp ecu s, the species belonging to the same group having a 

 somewhat similar extension, whilst each of these groups of species 

 is confiued to special climatological conditions and is only found 

 in those parts where such prevail. 



The Norwegian flora is in the main monotonous. On the 

 mountains large areas are covered with only a few lichens. mos- 

 ses. and heather, or copses of dwarf birch. juniper and willows; 

 lower down the forests are formed of birch, fir, and spruce, and 

 have a monotonous flora viz.. heather and lichen in the fir forests 

 blue berries and a few kiuds of moss in the spruce forests, while 

 the west coast is covered with heather and the numerous marshes 

 with a vegetation, poor in species, of a few mosses and Carices. 



But in spite of this general monotony of the flora of the 

 mountain wastes, with their greyish yellow lichens, greyish green 

 and green copses of willows and dwarf birch. there are certain 

 places, particularly on slaty ground, where a richer vegetation 

 may be found. It.consists of small perennial plants, some inches 

 in height, and which are particularly distinguished by their 

 copiousness of flowers, which are very large in proportion to 

 the size of the plant, and have very pure^and lovely colours. 

 Outside Xorway we also encounter these plants in arctic regions 

 and the alpine flora of these slaty tracts is therefore of arctic 

 character. But not all slate mountains have such a varjing 

 flora. The coast climate is, in consequence of the mild winters, 

 when the temperature frequently changes. destructive to these 

 plants, which shoot at a very low degree of heat. It is for this 

 reason that Avhen we mark those places on the map which have 

 a rich alpine flora, they lie scattered as oases over the laue' 

 with great spaces between, but always sheltered from the sea- 

 winds, i. e. on the east and north east side of the highest moun- 

 tains and greatest glaciers, which act as barriers against the 

 mild climate of the coast. In these places the botanist may 

 fancy himself transfered to Spitzbergen or North Greenland; he 

 finds the principal plants encountered there; and if we follow 

 the Arctic flora to Spitzbergen we find that also here it shuns 

 the sea and is most copious at the bottom of the fjords. 



