THE FLORA 411 
ager along the coast; and since Labrador, as at present 
geographically limited, and as it must always be known to 
the great majority of visitors, is but little more than a 
coast-line, the tundra is the characteristic Labrador for- 
mation. ‘‘ Beyond the last stunted trees,” says Schimper,’ 
“so far as ice does not cover the ground, the frigid desert, 
or tundra, almost alone dominates Arctic mainlands and 
islands. Only in the less cold and therefore chiefly southern 
tracts in the Arctic zone, in more favourable localities a few 
less insignificant formations exist; for instance, willow- 
bushes and small meadows on river-banks and in fiords, or 
even formations of dwarf shrubs, which consist of a denser 
growth of the same evergreen, small-leaved, shrubby species 
as appear singly in the tundra between mosses and lichens. 
Dwarfed growth, a distinctly xerophilous character, the 
predominance of mosses and lichens, the incomplete cover- 
ing of the ground, — these features are everywhere charac- 
teristic of the tundra... . In the less cold tundra dis- 
tricts, more soil is occupied by vegetation than unoccupied ; 
even wide tracts can have a continuous carpet of lichens. 
Where the climate is most rigorous, the vegetation forms 
only widely separated patches on the bare, usually stony 
soil.” 
Conditions in Labrador are such as to make possible the 
close continuous growth almost everywhere. It is inter- 
rupted only by the occasional intrusion of unfavourable or 
improved surroundings. These are of four types: the 
summits of the higher mountains; protruding areas of 
sparsely covered rocks and gravels; collections of water in 
1A. F. W. Schimper, Plant Geography wpon a Physiological Basis, 
p. 685. Oxford, 1904. 
