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Cultural influence on the flora 227others, but the railway system was completed aslate as the 1930s. Many plants have been introducedby means of the railways. The surroundings ofrailway stations are good finding-places for inanyspecies, elsewhere foreign to the district. In recentyears, other means of transport have become moreimportant. -Roads are still being built extensively.There is now a network of roads of different. quality,from highways to simple lorry roads for the forestry,but many areas still suffer from inadequate communication.Modern forestry with clear-felling, controlledburning, replanting of vast areas and use of brushkillers,also greatly influences the flora and vegetation,but trucks are inferior to horses in promotingweed dispersal in the forests.Another factor influencing the flora, in this casevery destructively, is the utilizing of hydro-electricpower by the building of dams, thereby submergingvast areas along the lakes used as reservoirs anddestroying the vegetation of both lakes and rivers.Also the construction of high-voltage powerlineshas a considerable influence on vegetation.The factors mentioned above have caused a mixingof indigenous and synanthropous elements inthe flora to a degree quite unknown in the middlenineteenth century. The number of introducedspecies is now at least double as compared to thatof a hundred years ago.Some examples of the synanthropous flo.ra ofLappland are given below.(a) Old synanthropous plants, introduced beforethe middle of the nineteenth century:Poa annuaFestuca rubra1Agrostis tenuisUrtica dioeca1Rumex acetosellaR. longifoliusPolygonum aviculareChenopodium albumStellaria mediaCapsella bursa-pastorisTrifolium repensT. pratenseV icia craccaViola tricolorCarum carviGaleopsis bifidaG. speciosaLamium amplexicaule1 These, and possibly others, have also indigenous populationspresumably present before colonization.Plantago majorChrysanthemur:n leucanthemumGnaphalium silvaticumAchillea millefoliumTripleurospermum inodorum(b) New synanthropous plants, introduced duringthe last century but now stabilized in the district:Thlaspi alpestreCardaminopsis arenosaSaxifraga granulataPotentilla norvegicaAlchemilla pastoralisTrifolium hybridumStachys palustrisPlantago mediaGalium mollugoCampanula patulaAchillea ptarmicaMatricaria matricarioidesSenecio vulgaris(c) New synanthropous plants, more or less occasional(mostly introduced through railway constructionor transport):Luzula luzuloidesDactylis glomerataChenopodium polyspermumLychnis flos-cuculiM edicago lupulinaTrifolium spadiceumErodium cicutariumLamium purpureumVeronica persicaPlantago lanceolataOentaurea cyanusLapsana communisSonchus asperLeast influenced by man at present are the extensivemires and some little productive, principallypre-alpine woods in the northernmost part or nextto the mountain range. Owing to rules derivedfrom economic consideration of the slowness ofnatural re-growth, and the high cost of promotingregeneration artificially, there is at present verylittle cutting in these parts. The higher parts ofsome isolated low fells (see pp. 219-221) also seemto be almost untouched by forestry.It is to be regretted that only small parts of thewoodlands have been preserved in a virgin condition,except for a single large district, the MuddusNational Park, comprising about 50,000 hectaresto the north of the Great Lule River. Quite a numberof smaller areas of more or less primeval foresthave been set aside as nature reserves by the SwedishState Forest Administration, and a few byindustrial companies.Acta Phytogeogr. Suec. 50

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