low flowers, Campanula rotundifolia with blue flowers, Lychnis flos
euculi with pi rib flowers, and lastly Artth/riscus silvestris with its
erect stalks and delicate white umbels.
Particularly in the south, artificial meadows of perennial
forage plants are much used. The species employed are timothy
grass (Phleum pratensej and species of clover (Trifolium pratense
and hybridum):
All along the coast of Norway, sea-weeds grow in great abundance.
The numerous indentations of the coast occasion variations
in the conditions of the vegetation’ and as the bottom is generally
firm, it is nearly always thickly overgrown with sea-weeds down
to a depth of 60 or 90 feet.
On the beach, the various kinds of sea-wrack predominate
(Fucus vesiculosus, F.- serratus, Aseophyllum nodosum, Pelvetia canali-
culata). They make horizontal formations, those species which can
bear most dryness growing uppermost. The very highest are bluish
green sea-weeds, and two or three inferior red sea-weeds (Porphyra,
Bangia), which are satisfied with a sprinkling of sea-Water. On
more exposed places on the shore are found .some finely branching
rhodosperms (Ceramium, Polysiphonia) ; they often form thick
tufts, which retain the water between their branches when they
are laid bare at low. tide. In thé north of Norway, several large
rhodosperms also appear regularly on the beach, such as the pretty
Bhodymenia palmata, which is bleached by the sunlight, so that its
flat branches exhibit every shade o f colour, from a reddish purple
to a yellowish green. Beyond the lowest low-water mark, there
are other species, first of all the large, brown sea-tang (Laminaria,
digitata, L. Cloustoni, L. saccharinaj. The first two species have
the appearance of trees with a lobed limb instead of a crown.
They form whole forests along the extreme coast. They are tough
and firm, and move gracefully with the waves. In their shelter,
and on their stems grow the smaller forms, pretty crimson rhodosperms
especially of the genera Delesseria and Ptilota.
Laminariæ are found in such large quantities that they acquire
an economic importance. In stormy weather they are torn away
and carried to shore, where they are collected and burnt, the ash
being used especially for the extraction of iodine. Successful
attempts have also been recently made to extract iodine direct
from the sea-tang without burning, whereby several of the organic
substances in it are also utilised, especially pectine substances.
Other sea-weeds are much used as forage, especially Alaria
esculenta. Of peculiar forms may be further mentioned the pink
calcareous sea-weeds, the genus Lithothamnion especially being
abundantly represented. They form -crusts, or thickly branching
masses, that look like coral. They, sometimes grow to half a yard
in diameter.
The sea-weeds along the coast, grow all the year round; indeed,
many kinds, such as Laminaria, form their reproductive
organs during the winter. The same is the case with the floating
organisms in the sea, the plankton; all the year round, in the sea
along the Norwegian coast, great quantities of unicellular algse
are found drifting about with the ocean currents, in greatest abundance
in the spring and autumn. These organisms possess great
importance as the primitive nourishment of the sea;' latterly their
occurrence has been utilised in the study of the direction of the
ocean currents.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
M. H. B l y t t a n d A. B l y t t , Norges Flora, I —I I I . K r is tia n ia 1861—i f
A. B ly tt, On vegetationsforholdene ved Sognefjorden. Kristiania 1869.
C. H a b tm a n , Handbok i Skandinaviens Flora, 11 upl. ..Stockholm. 1879.
I. M. N o bm a n , Norges arrktiske flora. Kristiania 1891—,
F. C. S c h ü b e l e e , Die Pflanzenwelt Norwegens. K r is tia n ia 1 8 7 6 t '
Viridariwm, norvegicwm, B . I%3. Kristiania 1886—1889.
B. K a a l a a s , Levermosernes udbredelse i Norge. 1893. (N y t Magasin' fo r
Maturvidensk., B. X X X I I I .)
E . A b e s c h o u g , Phycearunij quce in maribus Scandinavian crescunt, enumc-
ratio, I—I I U p s a la 1847— 1849.
■ °™tribution to the Knowledge o f the MaHne Algae o f Norway, I —II:
MW—m L r -pRromtt Museums Aarsheftcr 1$ -U .f I
JEllman, Handbok-i Skandinaviens Hafsalgflora, I. S to ck h o lm 1890.
OHAN H jo b t & H. H. Gban, Currents and Pelagic l i f e in the Northern Ocean.
J-asj. (Bergens Museums skrifter, B . VI.)