CHAPTER XVI 
THE FLORA 
By E. B. DELABARRE 
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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