THE FLOE A 395 



that region, which still offers large opportunities for botani- 

 cal as well as for other kinds of exploration. 



Few localities will better repay the amateur or even the 

 professional botanist than this, either in aesthetic gratifi- 

 cation or in opportunity for scientific research. Labrador 

 is one of the most southerly of all countries that have a 

 predominantly Arctic vegetation. It is sufficiently far to 

 the south to show transitional belts between the temperate 

 and Arctic zones, as well as those more strictly Arctic. Like 

 all far northern lands, it presents an amazing wealth of 

 strikingly coloured flowers, so thickly sown as in many 

 places to resemble a cultivated garden. Add to this the 

 exceedingly great picturesqueness of its scenery, its unex- 

 plored lofty mountains, higher perhaps than any others on 

 the Atlantic side of the Americas, its fairly easy accessibility, 

 and the decidedly tolerable nature of its brief summers; 

 then its attractiveness and charm to those who know it will 

 be easy of comprehension. 



Botanically, Labrador may be considered best by divid- 

 ing it into two regions of markedly different aspect, 

 the interior and the coast. Of the former but little is 

 known, except that it is covered with trees of good growth, 

 extending almost to the northern extreme of the country. 

 These interior portions possess essentially a cold temperate, 

 not an Arctic, type of flora. Our knowledge of their plants 

 is derived mainly from journeys across it in several direc- 

 tions by Dr. Low of the Canadian Geological Survey, and 

 from the visit of Mr. Bryant to the Grand Falls. 1 Its 



1 For these descriptions, see Ann. Rep. Geol. Survey of Canada, 

 Part L, Vol. VIII, 1896; and Bulletin of Philadelphia Geographical 

 Club, March, 1904. Other earlier expeditions through the interior, 



