ST. JOHN: SABLE ISLAND. 39 



a quiet lake and the north side of the island was miles removed, as no 

 sand reached these localities for many years. 



"Though there are no trees on the island and shrubs never attain 

 more than a foot in height, these, if sheltered from the sea air and 

 winter gales attain a considerable size. About fourteen years ago, 

 Mr. Boutellier planted a willow and an elm, both of which are now 

 about five feet high. Every summer they make a fine growth, but 

 during the winter are killed back to the point at which they are pro- 

 tected by an adjcining fence. Even in summer, as I learned from 

 my own observations, the leaves above the shelter of the fence are 

 small and badly formed, and after a strong gale or heavy fog the ten- 

 der ones become blackened or shrivelled at the edges, while those 

 that were protected were very large and well formed." The two 

 planted trees mentioned by John Macoun, were still living in 1913, 

 that is twenty-eight years after their planting. They had good stur- 

 dy trunks for about two feet, then bushed out into broom-like heads 

 of innumerable fine shoots that stretched up above the protecting 

 board fence. As John Macoun stated, each year all of these upright 

 shoots are killed back to the level of the top of the fence. 



He makes the generalization that "all the shrubs are natives of 

 Newfoundland and Nova Scotia." 1 This seems to be the case, with 

 the exception of Rubus arcuans which is not known from Newfound- 

 land, and at that time was not known to Professor Macoun. 



PLANT HABITATS. 



On an island consisting of a 20-mile stretch of sand dunes there can 

 be little diversity of plant habitats. Nevertheless, a variety of these 

 is found on Sable Island, and they may be distinguished as follows: 



SEA BEACHES. These are of pure white sand. This is true, ex- 

 cept for one bit of the South Beach, east of the Life Saving Station 

 No. 3, where magnetite, as iron sand, is so abundant as to alter the color. 

 The vegetation of this strip, however, is not perceptibly different from 

 that on other parts of the beach. Because of the encroachment of 

 the waves, the beach is very steep, the loose dry sand rising abruptly 

 to the base of a dune. At the very top of the beach in the soft, wind- 

 blown sand are a few clumps of Arenaria peploides L., var. robusta 

 Fernald, all of them with their young shoots gone, eaten off by the 

 gangs of wild ponies. Here and there are small single plants of Cakile 

 edentula (Bigel.) Hook.; otherwise the beach is bare of vegetation. 



1 Macoun, L c. 218 A. 



