CHAPTER XVI 



THE FLORA 

 BY E. B. DELABARRB 



THE writer of this chapter is unwilling to allow it a place 

 in this book, unless his readers will be truly indulgent and 

 permit him to preface it with a brief note of personal apol- 

 ogy. It must be read only with the clear understanding 

 that it is written not by an expert in botany, but by one 

 who, with the limited skill of an amateur, studied the plants 

 of Labrador during a long summer's visit, and since then 

 has read with eager interest all that he could find bearing on 

 the subject. Such a person naturally lacks the technical 

 knowledge and trained judgment of a botanist by profes- 

 sion, especially in matters of nomenclature, of important 

 but not easily observed detail, of good insight into real 

 causes and conditions. So the present writer would gladly 

 have persuaded a more competent person to take his place. 

 Some day the real experts will correct a large number of 

 inadequacies in this description. But until they are ready, 

 it seems inevitable that a chapter like this must be contrib- 

 uted by one who is merely a general observer and ardent 

 lover of nature, and who happens to have been on the field, 

 even though he lack an equipment sufficient to guard him 



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