A LABRADOR SPRING 



Another flower, almost as charming as the 

 orchid, I found for the first time on this day, 

 springing up from its procumbent mass of 

 dark, evergreen foliage, the mountain avens 

 or dryas, a rock nymph rather than a wood 

 nymph, however, for it grew on the scanty 

 soil of the limestone ledges close to the 

 sea. The leaves are arrow-head shaped, 

 dark, shining green above, white below, while 

 the flowers, growing in abundance on short 

 erect stems, open their lovely white cups, 

 like single roses, to the sky. Where the buds 

 of these conspicuous flowers were hidden 

 but a week before, I do not know, although 

 I had collected and pressed this pretty 

 evergreen without even suspecting that it 

 would be covered with conspicuous flowers a 

 week later. The mountain avens extends its 

 range through arctic America even to Green- 

 land. 



Another exceedingly pretty little flower, a 

 lilac coloured one, that sprang up on the lime- 

 stone rocks at this time, was especially notice- 

 able on account of its leaves which were cov- 

 ered with a white powder below. This was a 

 variety of the mealy primrose, and, curiously 



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