398 LABRADOR 



are usually shrubs or trees rather than to those of a naturally 

 low, herbaceous type. The former are of very few species, 

 mostly willows, alder, and birch, and a few evergreens. 

 The height of these will vary much, and will be determined 

 largely by the degree of their protection from drying winds, 

 whether by the conformation of the land or by a winter 

 covering of snow. In very exposed situations they will be 

 lacking, or will lie close to the ground, or will have become 

 modified into a special low-growing species, such as the 

 interesting and widely spread willow, Salix herbacea, each 

 plant of which bears but two or three leaves on a single 

 unbranching stem, attaining only a fraction of an inch in 

 height. 1 



3. Reduction in surface of leaves. These tend to be 

 small and thick (Empetrum, Erieacece) or, if thin, either long 

 and narrow (Cruciferce, Caryophyllacece, Salicacece, ever- 

 greens, grasses, etc.), or deeply lobed (Pedicularis, some 

 Rosacece), or much wrinkled with strong veins (Rubus arc- 

 ticus, R. Chamcemorus) , or pinnately divided (Leguminosce, 

 Filices). The latter form gives them an increased surface 

 without disadvantage, because of their special mobility, 



1 Townsend (in Along the Labrador Coast, 1907) gives a few 

 measured examples of these stunted growths. He found, for example, 

 a larch 9 inches high and f inch in diameter, that was 32 years old ; in 

 another case, a balsam fir 13 inches high, 2 inches diameter, with 27 

 inches spread, 54 years old. These remind me of the pasture apple 

 trees of New England, in whose case the stunting agent is not drying 

 winds, but browsing cows. Much the same effect is produced, a 

 lower, thicker, stockier growth, even at great age. I measured one in 

 western Massachusetts, for instance, that proved to be 40 years old, 

 yet was less than 5 feet in height, with an average diameter of 2 inches 

 a little above a much thickened base, and a total spread of about 

 7 feet. 



