Minnesota Plant Life. _ 27 



An estimate of the distribution of these 7,500 species of Min- 

 nesota plants among the different groups is approximately as 

 follows: slime-moulds 150; bacteria and algae 1,000; fungi and 

 lichens 3,250; liverworts and mosses 500; ferns and flowering 

 plants 2,600. It is evident then, that most plants of the state 

 belong to the lower orders of vegetation. 



There may now be given a general account of the Minne- 

 sota vegetation, avoiding the use of technical terms and describ- 

 ing where it is possible certain common forms of each group, so 

 that the reader may have within small compass a comprehensive 

 view of the classes just named, as they are represented in the 

 state. 



Slime-moulds. The plants (or more probably animals) known 

 as slime-moulds constitute a very peculiar group of organisms. 

 It is by no means certain that they are plants at all, although 

 they have some vegetable characters. In other respects 

 they resemble the lower animals, and botanists and zoolo- 

 gists have often debated to which of the two great realms of life 

 they really belong. One of them, which is known to occur in 

 Minnesota, may possibly have come under the observation of 

 some of the readers of this book. The roots of cabbages and 

 turnips, when pulled from the ground, are sometimes found to 

 be covered with a curious irregular growth of little spherical 

 tubers, about the size of hazel nuts, — sometimes larger, though 

 often very niuch smaller. The occasion of the appearance of 

 such tubers is the development of singular little slime-moulds 

 too small to be seen by the naked eye but sufficiently active to 

 cause gall-like swellings in the tissues of the root. Because of 

 the ruptured appearance which the root has when affected by 

 these tiny organisms, the whole structure, root and slime-mould, 

 is known as a root-liernia or as club-roof. 



Most slime-moulds do not, however, live thus as parasites on 

 other plants, but are found on decaying leaves, rotten twigs, 

 fallen logs and other debris of the forest-floor in shaded places. 

 They sometimes grow up from a mucilaginous base, forming 

 little brown, cylindrical plumes, not more than half an inch in 

 height and clustered together, a score or more, in a group. The 

 brown plumes are found upon careful examination to be deli- 

 cately woven masses of threads, between which is a fine brown 



