242 
M. L. FERNALD 
a species unknown south of Newfoundland and the Gaspe Peninsula 
in eastern America, but very characteristic of the calcareous Canadian 
Rocky Mountains; while the driest of limestone shingle maybe carpeted 
by the arctic-alpine Salix reticulata, a close relative of Salix vestita, 
but differing from it in various technical points. Similarly, on the 
calcareous shingle one is sure to find the handsome Dryas integrifolia 
(fig. 3), again of extensive distribution in the arctic archipelago and 
other regions of arctic America, but rare so far south as western New- 
foundland ; or Potentilla nivea, of more general arctic distribution and 
extending south into the Rocky Mountains and in the East as far as 
the coasts of western Newfoundland and the Gaspe Peninsula. With 
these plants the very striking Lesquerella arctica (fig. 4) abounds on 
the hmestone shingle, again a plant of arctic range, found southward 
only in northeastern Labrador, on Anticosti Island, and in western 
Newfoundland: while these limestone plains and tablelands are the 
home of arctic-alpine Antennarias, Arnicas, Astragali, and various 
species of Hedysarum, Gentiana, Campanula, Draba, Arenaria and 
numerous calcicolous ferns. In the wetter valleys Parnassia Kotze- 
buei, of broad arctic distribution and local occurrence in the Canadian 
Rocky Mountains, is found and with it such characteristic Rocky 
Mountain plants as Juncus longistylis, Cryptogramma Stelleri, Poa 
alpina, Cypripedium parviflorum, and Viola nephrophylla, while occa- 
sionally a wet bank will be encountered covered with a dense carpet 
of the extremely arctic Carex glacialis, unknown elsewhere in America 
south of the arctic realm. These characteristic plants of western 
Newfoundland, then, are the species of high arctic-alpine range, 
abounding in America chiefly in the arctic archipelago or in the 
Canadian Rocky Mountains, both areas composed almost entirely of 
calcareous rock. This distinctive flora, which gives character to the 
west coast, consists of some hundreds of species which are quite un- 
known from the east coast or from the central tundra district. 
When we come to the east coast the first impression of every travel- 
er is one of excessive barrenness and untempered bleakness. In 
this region of acidic rocks the rich forests of the valleys of the west 
coast are not met. The trees are small and chiefly stunted, and plants 
which give the pronounced character to this region of subarctic aspect 
are very different from those of the west coast. On the peaty slopes 
of the hills of southeastern Newfoundland one finds himself divided in 
his mind as to whether the flora is more like that of the heaths of 
