In the west of Ireland and in the Faroes, where certain inland and lowland localities are still uncultivated, Plantage maritfma and other halophytes occur in quantity and side by side with some Alpine species, such as Dryas octopetala.
Characteristic representatives are Pa paver nudicaule, Saicifraga oppositifolia, which forms a profuse carpet, and Dryas octopetal,a.
With the melting of the great ice-sheet the climate became milder, and the southern part of Sweden was covered with shrubs and plants now found only in the northern and alpine parts of the country (Salix polaris, Dryas octopetala, Betula nana, &c.).
Of Phanerogams, only the Dryas octopetala covers small areas of the debris, interspersed with isolated Cochlearia, &c., and, where a layer of thinner clay has been deposited in sheltered places, the surface is covered with saxifrages, &c.; and a carpet of mosses allows the arctic willow (Salix polaris) to develop. Where a thin sheet of humus, fertilized by lemmings, has accumulated, a few flowering plants appear, but even so their brilliant flowers spring direct from the soil, concealing the developed leaflets, while their horizontally spread roots grow out of proportion; only the Salix lanata rises to 7 or 8 in., sending out roots I in.
Mountain Avens (Dryas) - Mountain plants of the Rose family, containing two or three dwarf alpine plants of spreading growth and neat evergreen foliage.
