THE FLORA 393 



gence from the readers of this account. But if this be 

 generously extended, the writer permits himself to hope 

 that, however inadequate his description may be and how- 

 ever subject to later correction, it may serve largely to 

 increase the enjoyment of visitors to this fascinating 

 country, by enabling them to understand more fully the 

 great interest and attractiveness of its plant life. 



Some few visitors to Labrador return with an impres- 

 sion that it is a bleak and forbidding country, rude, cruel, 

 unattractive, bare of vegetation. But to many others it 

 seems full of beauty, of attractiveness, and even of a rich 

 and appealing fertility. The latter is the truer view, for 

 it is the one gained by those who observe with more seeing 

 eyes. Really, the wealth and variety and brilliancy of the 

 Labrador growths and flowers are very striking to one who 

 can see them at all understandingly. Very little knowl- 

 edge of botany and love of plants are needed to realize this 

 fact. An added ability to recognize and name the more 

 common forms naturally increases enormously one's ap- 

 preciation and satisfaction, and is not difficult to acquire. 

 It is as important for real enjoyment and profit as to possess 

 a similar outline knowledge of the geological forms of the 

 land and of the causes that have moulded its scenic features. 

 It will not cost a great amount of additional labour to gain 

 an even more intimate understanding of the plants, of 



Misstassinica, Gentiana propinqua, Pedicularis flammea, Polyganum 

 littorale, Betula nana, Luzula arcuata, L. hyperborea, Eriophorum 

 alpinum, Poa laxa, Lycopodium lucidulum; omit also, but leave the 

 synonym given with it : Comarum palustre, Potentilla rubens. In a 

 majority of cases these corrections do not imply that the plants thus 

 called in this and earlier lists do not exist in Labrador, but that it is 

 now possible to give them more accurate names. 



