Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Plant Life, by H. H. Gran
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hollows and on flat country, but also on slopes. The rocky knolls
round about are carpeted with bog-moss (Sphagnum), and taller
bog-plants flourish. For this reason, bog-plants occur in greater
numbers than in the east country, and thus often impress the
vegetation with their character. We may name, as an example, the
spotted orchis (Orchis maculata); it is a characteristic plant in the
west country, and is found in quantities on the rocky knolls, while
in the east country it grows almost exclusively in swampy
meadows. The typical west country plants, the Ericas and Narthecium,
must also be described as bog-plants.
The west coast is especially rich in mosses. Several
naturalists have here found a number of Atlantic forms, which are most
widely distributed in more southerly regions.
North of the Dovre Mountains, the flora most resembles that
of the east country. Around the Trondhjem Fjord there are large
tracts of flat cultivated land, and, as in the east country, the
spruce is the predominating tree. The whole of the district of
Trondhjem and the southern part of Nordland is described as an
undulating sea of spruce-woods, in which higher mountains, woods
of other trees, large bogs and cultivated fields are only to be
regarded as islands of no great extent. The flora of the spruce
woods is very poor as regards species, and, as in the south, the
undergrowth is composed of mosses, bilberry and a few other
vascular plants.
The upper limit of growth is lower here than south of the Dovre
Mountains. In the valleys of the interior, the birch grows up to
3000 or 3300 feet, on the coast, much lower; the limit of the pine
in the interior is about 2000 feet above sea-level, but is lower on
the coast, as for instance in Hevne, 1100 feet, on the large island
of Hitter en, 600 feet above the sea. The higher latitude also
shows its influence on the vegetation in the arctic plants which
begin to appear in the lowlands.
The extreme coast region is destitute of forest, and is also
without a number of continental plants that are found inland.
But the coast plants of Western Europe also gradually disappear
north of Stad. The coast, therefore, possesses a very scanty flora
of common species.
Within the polar circle the spruce woods disappear. The birch
is here the most important forest tree, while the pine is found
only in the inland valleys. The extent of the birch-woods depends
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