Chapter I. 



Plants in their Societies. 



Purpose of this book. In the- pages of this book I hope 

 to give the reader an idea of the diversified plant Hfe whicli 

 occupies the air, the soil and the waters of Minnesota. First 

 of all, it must be remembered that plants although passive 

 creatures are quite as truly living beings as are the more active 

 animals. Just as men and women, either themselves or their 

 ancestors, have entered the state from some other region, so 

 also have plants, according to the nature of each, found their 

 way and selected their abodes. It is no easy problem to de- 

 termine why some family has chosen one village rather than 

 another. This may have been from causes which are too subtle 

 or too remote for analysis, but it is recognized that people have 

 not come to make their homes without some reason which 

 seemed sui^cient to them or to their forefathers. So, too, 

 there is always some reason for the appearance at a particular 

 spot of one kind of plant rather than another, and it is possible 

 in a general way to explain the vegetation of the hills and 

 meadows of the state. 



Minnesota geography. A glance at the map will show that 

 the State of Minnesota lies between the 43rd and 49th paral- 

 lels of north latitude and between the 89th and 97th meri- 

 dians west, and that it is centrally located in the North Ameri- 

 can continent. \\'ithin its domain rises the Mississippi and 

 by this great river the surplus rain-fall of the state is in large 

 measure carried away to the Gulf of Mexico. The northwest- 

 ern portion, by the Red river and its tributaries, is drained 

 through Lake AMnnipeg into Hudson bay, while a few streams 

 flow in the valley of the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic ocean. 

 Minnesota, therefore, is not only geographically but hydro- 

 graphically central. Hence it might be supposed tnat its plants 



