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. 
3. Reduction in surface of leaves. These tend to be 
small and thick (Hmpetrum, Ericacee) or, if thin, either long 
and narrow (Crucifere, Caryophyllacee, Salicacee, ever- 
greens, grasses, etc.), or deeply lobed (Pedicularis, some 
Rosacee), or much wrinkled with strong veins (Rubus arc- 
ticus, R. Chamemorus), or pinnately divided (Leguminosae, 
Filices). The latter form gives them an increased surface 
without disadvantage, because of their special mobility, 
1Townsend (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 ? 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. JI 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 
@iteet. 
