Minnesota Plant Life. 267 



They are spongy, and when released from the bottom of the 

 lake float to the surface. 



Indian lotus. The largest flowered and most interesting of 

 the native water-lilies is the Indian lotus — not very frequent in 

 Minnesota, and confined to a few localities. It occurs in the 

 Mississippi river at Red Wing, Mendota and La Crosse ; also 

 in Lake Pepin and at the extreme north end of Halstead's bay, 

 Lake Minnetonka. The leaves are shield-shaped with central 

 stem, and from one to two feet broad. Some of them are raised 

 above the water and become slightly vase-shaped, wdiile others 

 float upon the surface. The flowers, which may be ten inches 

 in diameter, though not commonly reaching this size, are of a 

 pale cream-color, and differ from those of the other water lilies. 

 The fruiting area is quite remarkable. The top of the flower 

 stem is flattened out into a biscuit-shaped body in which the 

 little nuts, the size of an acorn, are imbedded. They loosen 

 as the fruit matures and rattle about so that the lotus in some 

 districts goes by the name of "rattlebox." This plant belongs 

 to the same genus in which the famous lotus of the Nile and 

 the Orient is classified. The true oriental lotus is also known 

 in the east as Indian lotus because it grows in India. Such a 

 fact is illustrative of the confusion that sometimes arises when 

 only popular names are employed in the designation of plants. 



The water-lilies, like very many aquatic flowering plants, dis- 

 play their flowers at the surface of the w^ater, and, after pollina- 

 tion has been eft'ected, close the flower into a bud again and 

 retract it beneath the surface, ripening the seeds beyond the 

 reach of aerial dangers. The lotus, however, ripens its fruits 

 in the air. 



Hornworts. The hornworts are apparently very rare plants 

 in ^Minnesota, but are known to grow in the vicinity of St. Paul 

 and Minneapolis — in White Bear lake and Lake Calhoun ; and in 

 the western part of the state — in Lakes Osakis and Alexandria. 

 They are submerged plants with slender stems, and the leaves 

 are arranged in whorls and are finely dissected into thread-like 

 filaments. The flowers are produced singly in the axils of the 

 leaves and are less than half an inch in length. There are 

 numerous stamens in each staminate flower, while the pistillate 

 flower develops a single one-chambered ovary, containing a 



