Minnesota Plant Life. 5 



they might obtain a foothold for themseh-es and their descend- 

 ants. \\'hen one contemplates for a moment this epitome of 

 plant-wanderings he is impressed by its similarity to the history 

 of his own race. It is known how peoples have moved from 

 one country to another, not usually en masse but individually, 

 quite as did the plants and under very much the same impelling 

 forces. For it is those plants which were able to leave the region 

 of increasing cold that later continued their kind under more 

 favorable circumstances, as it is also the hardy race of men who 

 migrate from the worn out farm, or congested city to some 

 new countr}' in which they may find prosperity and happiness 

 for themselves and for their children. 



Laws of plant distribution. There are, then, three paths 

 along which to seek the general laws of plant distribution. First, 

 as regards an area, one must inquire what is its geographical 

 position? second, what is its climate? third, what is its soil 

 and physical history? The answers to these three Cjuestions ex- 

 plain in large degree w4iat must be the plant population of that 

 area. With respect to the vegetation of Minnesota the most 

 impressive fact is that it is an immigrant vegetation. It mani- 

 fests the characters of a new community quite as truly as does 

 the American Republic, in its social and political organization, 

 the characters of a new country. This can be illustrated clearly 

 if one compare the Minnesota forest with the ancient forest of 

 the tropics in India, in Venezuela, or about the sources of the 

 Nile. Wdien one enters the dark solitudes of an equatorial for- 

 est his first thought is, from the sounds that reach his ears, that 

 the life of the forest must be above his head. Few animals are 

 seen, almost no insects and scarcely a green leaf or plant upon 

 the forest-floor, but there, rather, are dead and decaying trunks 

 of trees which have fallen and massive columns of trees that are 

 standing, while arching overhead are interlaced branches that 

 intercept the light and make the scene like that in some dim 

 cathedral. But if from a balloon one could look down upon the 

 immemorial crowns he would see spread out beneath him a 

 world alive with birds and insects, brilliant with flowers and rich 

 with the verdure of vines and air-plants. It would be much as 

 if the tree-tops had taken the place of the turf and shrubbery of 

 more northern climes. Many orchids and other plants of that 



