A LABRADOR SPRING 



broken bones, until the tree presents a woe- 

 fully crooked and crippled appearance. One 

 of these warty calli as big as a man's head 

 was shown me at Natashquan, where it had 

 been preserved as a curiosity. The difficulties 

 of Labrador tree-life are great! 



Perhaps the most active week in this brief 

 spring drama was that of the third to the tenth 

 of June. On the third I found white violets 

 covering a sunny bank hitherto bare, while 

 a few marsh marigolds, their bright yellow 

 flowers contrasting well with their dark, almost 

 black leaves, appeared on the edges of a brook 

 fed by a snowbank. Near by a few ferns were 

 pushing up their " fiddle-heads " from the 

 rich mould, and the cow parsnip was sending 

 up its buds of folded leaves beside the gigantic 

 dead stalks which had survived the winter 

 storms. The dwarf willows and birch were trying 

 to show green in their leaf-buds, and the larger 

 buds of the mountain ash were slowly unfolding. 

 On the next day I found the first white flower 

 of the goldthread, and on the fifth the cur- 

 rant, the first shrub to leaf out, was in blossom. 



June yth was a red letter day in the spring 

 calendar. The red osier, hitherto so bereft 



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