ST. JOHN: SABLE ISLAND. 39 
a quiet lake and the north side of the island was miles removed, as no 
sand reached these localities for many years. 
"Though there are no trees on the island and shrubs never attain 
more than a foot in height, these, if sheltered from the sea air and 
winter gales attain a considerable size. About fourteen years ago, 
Mr. Boutellier planted a willow and an elm, both of which are now 
about five feet high. Every summer they make a fine growth, but 
during the winter are killed back to the point at which they are pro- 
tected by an adjoining fence. Even in summer, as I learned from 
my own observations, the leaves above the shelter of the fence are 
small and badly formed, and after a strong gale or heavy fog the ten- 
der ones become blackened or shrivelled at the edges, while those 
that were protected were very large and well formed." The two 
planted trees mentioned by John Macoun, were still living in 19L3, 
that is twenty-eight years after their planting. They had good stur- 
dy trunks for about two feet, then bushed out into broom-like heads 
of innumerable fine shoots that stretched up above the protecting 
board fence. As John Macoun stated, each year all of these upright 
shoots are killed back to the level of the top of the fence. 
He makes the generalization that "all the shrubs are natives of 
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. "^ This seems to be the case, with 
the exception of Rubtis arciians which is not known from Newfound- 
land, and at that time was not known to Professor Macoun. 
Plant Habitats. 
On an island consisting of a 20-mile stretch of sand dunes there can 
be little diversity of plant habitats. Nevertheless, a variety of these 
is found on Sable Island, and they may be distinguished as follows: 
Sea Bp:aches. — These are of pure white sand. This is true, ex- 
cept for one bit of the South Beach, east of the Life Saving Station 
No. 3, where magnetite, as iron sand, is so abundant as to alter the color. 
The vegetation of this strip, however, is not perceptibly different from 
that on other i)arts of the beach. Because of the encroachment of 
the waves, the beach is \ery steep, the loose dry sand rising abruptly 
to the base of a dune. At the very top of the beach in the soft, wind- 
blown sand are a few clumps of Arniarid jtrpln'uhs L., var. rohitstd 
Fernald, all of them with their young shoots gone, eaten oil" by the 
gangs of wild ponies. Here and there are small single plants of Cakile 
edrnhda (Bigel.) Hook.; otherwise the l)each is bare of xi'getation. 
1 Macoun, /. c. 2 IS A. 
