362 



Minnesota Plant Life. 



are produced. Only one of the seed-rudiments ripens, so that 

 when the fruit is mature it ordinarily contains but a single seed, 

 supplied with albumen, and inclosing the straight embryo plant- 

 let. The flowers are borne in panicled clusters and are of a 

 greenish color. All five varieties, except the blue ash, are pretty 

 common in Minnesota. The white ash and the green ash are 

 the most abundant. The red ash abounds particularly down 

 the upper Mississippi to the White Earth reservation, and on 

 the Rainy river. The blue ash is found only in the far northern 

 portions of the state along the international boundary and 



near the sources of the Mis- 

 sissippi. 



Gentians. The gentian 

 family includes in Minne- 

 sota about ten species of 

 gentian, one spurred gen- 

 tian, one buck-bean and one 

 f 1 o a t i n g-heart. The two 

 plants last named are either 

 aquatic or denizens of wet 

 bogs, but the others are 

 terrestrial. The gentians 

 proper are noted for their 

 beautiful blue flowers, 

 blooming late in the year. 

 Two of the ten varieties are 

 After Britton and kuown as fringed gentians, 

 because the edges of the 

 lobes of the corolla tubes are frayed out into a blue fringe. 

 The larger fringed gentian has opposite, stemless, broad-based 

 leaves. The smaller fringed gentian has leaves slender at the 

 base and narrower, of willow-shaped or linear outline. The 

 other gentians are not fringed. In some the flowers open 

 into little blue bells, but in one, known as the closed gentian, 

 the corolla does not open at all, or only by a small pore. 

 Of those that oi)cn. the northern gentian may be recognized 

 by the row of ragged threads which arise just below and in- 

 side the notches of the corolla tube. The leaves are oppo- 

 site and lance-shaped. The stifT gentian and the oblong-leafed 



Fig. 172. 



Yellow gentian. 

 Brown. 



