Minnesota Plant Life. 7 



the valley of the Minnesota river. The prairie comprises the 

 southern portion of the state and a strip along the western 

 boundary in the valley of the Red river of the North. These 

 two regions, so different in their appearance, are inhabited by 

 plants which are not altogether dissimilar to each other. Most 

 of the plants at home on the prairie are not entirely absent from 

 the forest, while the greater number of forest plants may be 

 encountered, possibly not so abundantly, but at least casually, 

 on the prairie. The difTerence between the two regions does 



Fig. 1. — In the forest district. Growth of white pines and spruces upon a rocky island. 

 vSteamboat channel, Lake of the Woods. After photograph by the author. 



not lie in differences in the kinds of plants so much as it does in 

 the different character of the dominant plants. Among the pines 

 and spruces of the forest occur many of the grasses, vetches 

 and asters of the prairie. Along the borders of prairie sloughs 

 and streams there will be growing the same varieties of arrow- 

 heads, milkweeds and willow-herbs that form a characteristic 

 vegetation in similar places in the forest. But the dominant 

 plants of the forest are trees, lifting up their erect, perennial 

 stems, struggling with each other for light and air and giving to 

 the whole formation an upright effect, while the prairies are 



