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72
I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
vents the rapid decay of the plant-remains and causes but little
evaporation. They therefore increase in extent and importance the further north
one goes, so that in northern Sweden, despite the comparatively small
precipitation, the moors are estimated to cover about 30 % of the land
area below the forests limit. The nature of the moors varies very much
according to the plants which occur in them; and it is usual to distinguish
two chief groups — high-moors and low-moors. In the higli-moors there
prevail tuft-forming bog mosses (species of Sphagnum) and
dwarf-shrubs; in the low-moors brown mosses (species of Amblystegium)
together with grasses, sedges, and herbs. The high-moors occur to a
predominant degree in those districts in the southern region of coniferous forests
that are poor in chalk and obtain their most characteristic development as
high-lying mosses in the south and west of Sweden. The low-moors are
distinctive of the calcareous district in both the northern and the southern
region of coniferous forests. In the northern region of coniferous forests
sedge-moors prevail with a covering of non-tuft-forming bog mosses
(species of Sphagnum), a number of brown mosses (species of Amblystegium)
and numerous species of sedge, which type forms a kind of transition
between low-moor and high-moor.
On the shores of the sea the vegetation has obtained its distinctive
character from the salinity of the soil. Thick-leaved, juicy plants with a
blueish waxy coat there form a characteristic vegetation, which is most
striking on the west coast of Sweden and in the southern part of the
Baltic, but which diminishes more and more towards the north, in
proportion to the decrease of the salinity and which is but feebly represented
on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. In many places along the coasts,
especial^ in the Gulf of Laholm, in East Skåne, on Gotska Fårön and
Gotska Sandön, there are found districts of drift-sand with sand-binding
grasses characterized by their build and mode of growth, such as maram
(Psamma arenaria) and lymegrass (Elymus arenarius).
Below the highest marine limit the sea has often washed away the loose
layer of soil from the projecting rock-bottom. After this the weathering,
especially on the primitive cliffs, has been feeble. On these last,
therefore, the vegetation is limited to mosses and lichens, a number of herbs
and grasses, most of which have their period of vegetation proper in spring
and early summer, while trees and bushes have been able to obtain a
sufficiently firm foothold only in crevices and röck-fissures. In Öland.’
Gottland, and Västergötland there occur in the calcareous ledges of
rian limestone — whether bare or covered with a thin layer of weathered
röck — peculiar flora, marked by a love of chalk and warmth, which
shows close kinship with steppe-vegetation. Such districts with calcareous
ledges, bare or slightly covered with earth, are named "alvar" and are
peculiar to Sweden. Where the calcareous ledges are deeply weathered
they can bear trees, but only of an inferior quality.
The sea, too, has its peculiar vegetation, which is chiefly composed of
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