3o8 Minnesota Plant Life. 



lanes. Some of them, however, are erect, as, for example, the 

 very beautiful ''snow-on-the-mountains," famous for the pure 

 white borders of the leaves. This is also known as the white- 

 bordered spurge. Many of the mat spurges which have been 

 alluded to are common along railway tracks and roadsides. All 

 of them have a milky juice, and in Minnesota, a mat-plant with 

 a milky juice is pretty certain to be a spurge. The different 

 kinds of spurges are marked by the different sizes and shapes 

 of the leaves, the smoothness or hairiness of the stem, and the 

 surface of the seeds. One erect type, rather common in the 

 western part of the state, is known by its red seeds sculptured 

 over with a fine network marking. Another, the flowering 

 spurge, is a very deceptive plant to the amateur botanist. It 

 seems to have clusters of flowers about the size of flax flowers, 

 arranged in loose, flat-topped terminal clusters. But each of 

 the flower-like areas is in reality itself a cluster of flowers and 

 the four or five white petal-like leaves are not really parts of 

 the flower, but are bracts surrounding the clusters. Like the 

 other spurges, this plant may be recognized by its milky juice. 

 It cannot well be mistaken for other milky-juiced forms, such 

 as milkweeds or wild lettuce, but it might be mistaken for 

 one of the dogbanes, from which it dift'ers, however, in the 

 whorl of leaves standing at the base of the flowering area of the 

 stem. Besides, the real structure of the flowers is altogether 

 dift'erent, as may be learned by close observation. 



Water-starworts. The water-starworts or water-fennels are 

 very small, insignificant herbs found growing on mud-flats, or 

 submerged in flowing water, or in ponds. Three varieties occur 

 in Minnesota, all of them with low slender stems and opposite 

 leaves with flowers in their axils. In one kind, which grows in 

 flowing water, the leaves are linear and about half an inch long. 

 In another, which may grow in the water or upon the mud, 

 the leaves are ordinarily spoon-shaped, while in still another they 

 are ovate. In all of them, however, the linear type of leaf may 

 prevail and it is then very difticult to tell them apart. Tiny 

 green plants found growing on nnul-llats or submerged in the 

 water may l)e classified as water-starworts, if they have opposite 

 lea\es \\\{\\ an inconspicuous binl-like flower in tlic axil of 

 each. 



