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.
Travelling generally in companies, and carrying a simple outfit, these Celtic pioneers flung themselves on the continent of Europe, and, not content with reproducing at Annegray or Luxeuil the willow or brushwood huts, the chapel and the round tower, which they had left behind in Derry or in the island of Hy (Iona), they braved the dangers of the northern seas, and penetrated as far as the Faroes and even far distant Iceland.
During 6th and 7th centuries, Irish anchorites, in their "passion fc_ solitude," found their way to the Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands, Faroes and Iceland, but they were not interested in colonization or geographical knowledge.
Fcereyinga tells the tale of the conversion of the Fa revs or Faroes, and the lives of its chiefs Sigmund and Leif, composed in the 13th century from their separate sagas by an Icelander of the Sturlung school.
Warming and others, Botany of the Faeroes (Copenhagen, 1901-1903); Annandale, The Faroes and Iceland (Oxford, 1905).
